Missing
by Silvermokona
Summary: She had only just heard about the Nuzlocke challenge, but already she found herself sucked into Pokemon Silver and forced to play by its rules. It's either get to the top or be stuck forever, but it seems like something bigger is happening. . .
1. Prologue: The Nuzlocke Challenge

". . .I don't remember this at all," Arella shook her head, setting down the game-boy and leaning back on the couch.

"I thought you said Silver was your first pokemon game," her friend raised an eyebrow.

"It was!" Arella buried her head in her hands, frustrated, "But I was. . .like. . .6. I was too scared to do anything, so my sissy did everything."

"Ruby too?"

"Yeah, Ruby too. My first actual pokemon game I played through was PMD".

Her friend gave her a reassuring smile, "I was just wondering if you knew how to get pass that part. You don't have to work yourself up over nothing."

"Sorry Shannon. . ." Arella looked back up at her, giving her a tiny smile back.

Shannon picked up the game, looking at her before looking back up at her again, "Did you even try anything?"

"No. . .I wasn't sure what would happen and stuff. . ."

She smacked her on the head, "You also need more confidence, dang-nabbit! You have the confidence of a tiny little rodent."

"Yeah. . .I guess. . ." Arella sighed again ". . .Shannon? Question."

"Yeeeeeeees?"

"I was sifting through your party pokemon. . .and I noticed you didn't have your starter with you. . ."

Shannon froze, looked around, and then bit her lip.

"Arella. . .have you ever heard of the Nuzlocke challenge?"

"No. . .I don't believe I have."

"The Nuzlocke challenge is basically a self-imposed set of rules that you use when you play through pokemon. There's a bunch of other rules that you can add on, but there's only two basic rules," she held up one finger, "You can only catch the first pokemon you see in each area," she held up another finger, "and if a pokemon faints, you consider it dead."

"So. . .your starter. . ."

"My Typhlosion, Jamie, is dead. I was fighting Jasmine's Steelix when bam: full health crit Earthquake. I couldn't do anything about it," she looked away, sighing, before looking back, "But, it makes me closer to all of them. Look: you should try to find your old copy of Silver or something and start over. I think that might give you a little more confidence," she smiled again.

"I'll try. I haven't seen my copy in a while, but I'll try," Arella smiled back.

She jumped when her phone started ringing, then gave a nervous laugh.

"That's my mom. I guess I'll see you tomorrow then," she got up.

"Of course," Shannon grinned, getting up and giving her friend a tight hug before she walked out the door.

* * *

"Ha!" Arella grinned in success as she pulled out a GameBoy Color cartridge out of one of the many piles in her room, "Finally found you, evil thing!"

"Arella! You better be going to bed soon!" she cringed as she heard her mother yell from the other side of the house.

"Don't worry! I am!" she yelled back. She was really hoping she'd be able to start the challenge tonight, but she guessed it would have to wait until tomorrow. She got into bed, slipping the Pokemon Silver cartridge under her pillow before turning off the lights and slowly dozing off.


	2. Chapter 1: Just a Mental Breakdown

Arella yawned as she got up, stretching her arms before slowly getting out of bed.

And walked right into a wall.

"I specifically remember there **[b]not[/b]** being a wall there" Arella grumbled, rubbing her eyes before looking around.

"Holy jesus. . ." she trailed off as she looked around, "This isn't my room. . .But I swear to god I've seen this before."

She continued to look around more before finally decided to look in the mirror next to a dresser.

She stared at herself a little longer, mouth agape, before finally putting a hand to her chest.

"Holy crap. . .I have no boobs," she stared for a little longer, "Okay, either my life-long dream of having smaller boobs came true, or. . .I'm a guy."

"Arella, dear! Are you awake?"

"Yes!" Arella called down, not sure whether or not that was supposed to be her mom. She looked at herself a little longer in the mirror, then rummaged through the dresser and threw some clothes on before looking at the mirror once more.

"Yep. . .definitely a guy," she sighed before heading down the stairs.

A woman at the table noticed me, and ran towards me, smiling. "There you are dear! Professor Elm from next-door was wondering where you were."

"Elm?" she raised an eyebrow. He sounded familiar too. . .

"Yes, he wanted to ask you a favor," she continued smiling, "Also, your PokeGear came back from the repair shop!" she held out a weird looking machine. Arella blinked at it before reluctantly taking it.

"Now go on, Elm is waiting for you," she went around her and gave her a little shove towards the door. Nearly loosing her balance, she grumbled and walked out the door

As she walked towards Elm's lab, she saw another sign: New Bark Town.

"New Bark. . . ?" she blinked, then shrugged and continued towards his lab. Walking in the lab, she saw a lanky man in the back with short brown hair and glasses

"Arella, there you are," he smiled, "I have a favor to ask of you."

"What kind?" she asked.

"Well, I have a friend named Mr. Pokemon that doesn't live to far for from here who calls me whenever he makes an important discovery. Apparently he's made another discover and wants to show me, but I'm rather busy right now," he gave a nervous laugh "So, would it be possible if you could go?"

"Mr. . .Pokemon?" Arella blinked, "S-sure, I guess. . ."

"In return, I'd like you to pick one of these pokemon for a partner," he gestured to the table.

"Pokemon?" Arella's eyes went wide, then she shook her head. No, there was no way in hell there were pokemon. . .She looked over at the table where three balls were sitting.

"Which ones are they?" Arella looked back up at Elm.

"Those three are Chikorita, Totodile, and Cyndaquil," he smiled.

"Chikorita. . .Totodile. . .Cyndaquil. . .wait, aren't those. . ." she trailed off again, looking around ". . .That means. . .I'm in freaking Pokemon Silver. . .and. . ."

"Arella, are you okay?" Elm asked.

"Fine!" she raised a thumb and grinned, "Just having a mental breakdown!"

"O. . .okay" Elm blinked, then shrugged and went back to his work

She sighed again, "I really am in Silver. . .guess it's better than being in PMD" she grinned again before picking up the middle pokeball. A stream of light came out, making her drop the pokeball as a Totodile suddenly jumped up and hugged her neck.

"Oof!" she nearly fell over. Elm saw the spectacle, then laughed.

"I guess he really likes you."

"Yeah. . .I guess I'll go with him then," Arella couldn't help but smile either. She then kneeled down, setting the pokemon on the ground.

"It'd be kind of weird to call you Totodile all the time. . .How about Matthew?" she asked the alligator, and he nodded excitedly.

"Good. My name's Arella," she pointed to herself, "Arella, can you pronounce that?"

"A. . .rel. . ." he paused, "Arel. . .wa. Arelwa!" the Totodile smiled in success.

"Close enough," she picked up the Totodile, "Come on then, Matthew. We got to go see this Mr. Pokemon!"

She burst out the door of Elm's lab, Matthew in tow, and started out for Mr. Pokemon's house.


	3. Chapter 2: Jerky McJerkface

"So this is the famous Professor Elm's lab," a young boy with red hair leaned against the window of the lab, looking inside and grinning.

"You aren't being very sneaky you know," he jumped and turned around to see Arella only feet from him.

"Jesus, haven't you ever heard of personal space?" he grumbled, shoving her back.

Matthew snapped at him from Arella's arms, but she shook her head.

"It's okay Matthew, I didn't want to talk to Jerky McJerkface anyways," she stuck her tongue out at him before walking over to Route 29.

"I really hope he's a pokemon trainer, so I can beat the crap out of him later," Arella sighed, walking through the tall grass and still holding Matthew against her chest. She looked down at the Totodile, then smiled again, "Well, you beating the crap out of his pokemon."

It was then she heard a sudden change of wind behind her, then ducked as a Pidgey flew over her, it's talons barely missing her head.

"HOLY JESUS CHRIST!" she screamed as ducked when another one flew at her, "Why the hell are Pidgies suddenly so murderous as soon as _I_ get stuck in the game?"

"Arelwa!"

"What is it- SHIT!" she fell on the ground, twisting herself to her side as she did so she wouldn't crush Matthew. She looked up only in time to see the flock of murderous Pidgies came flying towards her.

Then, Matthew jumped out of Arella's grip, landing in front of her, and didn't even move as the flock got closer.

It was over in a flash, but suddenly the Pidgies were down, and Matthew was still standing, panting, and his claws gleaming in the sun.

"Uh. . .Should I even bother trying to attack or should I give you the experience now?" a Sentret from a random patch of grass. Matthew glared at it, then it sighed again, "Yeeaaaahh. . .here you go," and it left.

Arella simply sat there, amazed at what she saw, and wasn't exactly sure what to say until Matthew turned around and ran up to her.

"Arelwa okay?" he tugged on her shirt.

"Yeah. . .Arella's okay" she smiled, picking up Matthew again and continuing her journey to Cherrywood.

* * *

"Finally through that Route," Arella sighed in relief as she walked into town, free of the tall grass and rather murderous Pidgies.

Matthew started wagging his arm, as if trying to reach something as she looked down at him.

"What is it?" she continued to look at him for a second, then looked up to see where Matthew was looking.

"Oh. . .I see," Arella smiled, walking over to the ocean and kneeling down next to it.

"Water's pretty much your second home, isn't it?" she asked, "I bet you're going to grow into a strong pokemon one day, and then we can explore the ocean together, sound good?"

The Totodile nodded eagerly, which made her giggle.

"We'll do that someday. But first, we need to go to Mr. Pokemon's house."

"Excuse me," Arella turned to see an old man standing near her, "You're a rookie trainer, no?"

"Uh. . .yeah," she gave a tiny smile, standing back up to face him.

"Can I see your PokeGear for a second?" he outstretched his hand. Arella thought for a minute, bit her lip, then placed it on his hand. He took a chip out and inserted it into the PokeGear before taking it back out and handing it back to her.

"You have a map in your PokeGear now. It should prove useful incase you ever go out on an adventure," he nodded before walking away.

". . .I'm really not complaining about free stuff, but that was kinda odd," the trainer shrugged before heading north.


	4. Chapter 3: Mr Pokemon

"M-Mr. Pokemon, right?" Arella asked opened the door slight, peaking in and seeing on old man sitting on a chair.

"Yes, yes. Come in," he nodded, gesturing to the trainer to sit on the couch across from him. Arella hesitated, then walked in the door, closing it behind her and sitting down, placing Matthew beside her.

"Arella, correct?"

"Yeah. . ."

"So Elm got my message then," he got up as a tea kettle whistled from the kitchen, "Would you like tea?"

"Uh. . .yes please."

He walked over to the kitchen, but Arella could still see him over the counter.

"I'm surprised, young man. Most boys your age don't like tea," Mr. Pokemon commented.

"I guess I'm just kinda different," she shrugged, giggling mentally as Matthew seemed to take a new-found interest in a tiny moth that was flying around the room.

"I see. . ." he walked back to the chair, setting a cup of tea on the table between them before sitting down and sipping his own.

"Um. . .Mr. Pokemon? Have you ever heard of. . .well. . .heard of the Nuzlocke challenge?"

He raised an eyebrow, "Nuzlocke? I don't believe I've heard that term in many years. I believe the last lad that past through here mentioning that was someone named 'Snorlax' I believe."

". . .Is he still here?"

"Goodness gracious no, I heard he's long gone to Sinnoh. That's were all the pups go, to the newer regions to have new adventures" he sighed, "Why did you ask?"

"I'm in the challenge too," Arella looked down as Totodile ran past her feet, still chasing the moth.

Mr. Pokemon remained silent before speaking again, "Well, I wish you luck and I hope you make it to the top. That is what makes a Nuzlocke worth it."

"What exactly did you want Professor Elm to see so badly anyways?" she asked as she picked up the tea and held the cup in her hands as Matthew now jumped down from the couch to chase the moth around.

"Ah, that," he set his tea on the table and got up again, this time disappearing into another room. A couple moments later, he was back, carrying an egg-thing in his hands.

"An egg?" Arella raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, I'm not quite sure what to make of it. . ." he sighed, "But I'd Elm to look at it."

"I guess I'll take it back with me then," Arella shrugged, taking the pack-back off her shoulders, and with Mr. Pokemon's help, getting it inside gently.

"I should get going then," she smiled, then looked around, "As soon as I figure out where Matthew ran off to. . ."

"Mr. Pokemon, thank you for letting me barrow that, I should get-" Another old man walked in wearing a white lab-coat like Elm, but he stopped when he saw Arella.

"Oh, sorry, I hope I didn't interrupt anything."

"No worries, I was about to leave," she smiled back.

"But, do tell me," his face gave way to a puzzling look, "How did you get here without-"

He was cut off by Matthew running straight into his lab-coat, lifting the tails up as he continued to run after the moth.

"There you are, silly guy," Arella scooped him up as he ran past her.

"So you're the boy Elm sent then?" he asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"He must have thought you would make a really good trainer to give you such a rare pokemon like him," he gestured to Matthew.

"Really? He's rare?" Arella blinked.

"Yes, and he seems to like you very much already," he smiled, "I think you're the trainer I've been looking for. See, we don't know everything about pokemon, and many things are mysteries, so I'd like you to record your findings on this," he handed her a Pokedex.

"A Pokedex?" she stared at it.

"Yes, the high-tech encyclopedia for pokemon."

She continued to stare at it for a while before finally looking back up at the man.

"You don't. . .uh. . .happen to be Professor Oak, do you?"

"Yes, I am," he glanced at the clock, "Well, I'd better get going. I need to do my show at Goldenrod," and with that, he walked out the door.

"I'd better get going too," Arella smiled to Mr. Pokemon as she stored the Pokedex away, "Thanks again for the tea."

"It was my pleasure," he nodded, and Arella made her exit as well.

Outside, Arella continued walking before she exploded into a fit of giggles.

"Oh Arceus, Professor Oak. . .Shannon's never going to believe this. Hell, no one's going to believe this," she smiled, the continued walking.

Until a ringing coming from her PokeGear nearly scared the shit out of her.

"Jesus, this thing's a phone too?" she rummaged for it, then pressed a few buttons before finally figuring out how to work it.

"Uh, hello?"

"Arella, oh Arceus. . .Something bad has happened," it was Elm, and he sounded frantic.

"Bad? Like what?"

"It's. . .It's just horrible. Just. . .just come back to the lab, okay?" and he hung up. She stared at the PokeGear for a while before finally putting it back away and sighing

"We better head back for the lab then Matthew. . .I really hope whatever Elm's freaking about isn't too bad. . ."


	5. Chapter 4: Silver

"Well, let's go through murderous Pidgey route again," Arella sighed as she stared down Route 29, "Might as well avoid ever single patch of grass possible."

She shook her head, then started walking, glancing through the ground as her mind worked through all the possibilities of what Elm could be thinking about.

And walked straight into someone.

"Oh, sor-" she looked up and saw the red-headed boy looking down at her.

"Oh, you again," he sighed.

"You!" Arella stepped back, pointing epicly, "You're that Jerky McJerkface that was spying on Elm's lab earlier!"

"Jerky McJ- Wha- Oh never mind," he looked down, sighing in frustration.

She leaned in so she was looking up at his face "Do you possibly have pokemon?"

"Y-yeah, why?" he red-head looked down at her with a weirded-out expression on his face.

"Let's battle then," Arella smiled "So I can get pay-back from when you pushed me earlier."

"I'd rather-"

"Aw, come on. Is Jerky McJerkface also secretly Wussy Wussington III?" she grinned sheepishly.

"Wha- No!" he frowned "Go Chikorita!" a red-light came from a ball on his belt, and a Chikorita came out, twitching it's leaf happily.

"Go Matthew!" she called, and Matthew jumped from her grip and onto the ground, claws ready, "Nice choice of pokemon there, Girly O'Girlington Jr."

"Oh my- Would it kill you to stop with the nicknames for one second?" he glared at her, "Chikorita, Tackle!"

"Matthew, Scratch!"

"Look. . .uh. . .I kinda have a type advantage over you, so. . .uh. . .let's just call this one even, okay?" The Chikorita stammered, stepping back.

Matthew remained silent, instead lunging at it with his claws, knocking the Chikorita back.

"Really, I-I don't want to fight" it started stepping back faster, but Matthew got in another scratch, knocking it on it's side.

". . .Hmph, useless thing," he sighed after a while when the Chikorita wouldn't get back up, "You just got lucky."

"Or you just suck, Lo-"

"Look," he cut Arella off, "My name's Silver, o- Damnit. . .I wasn't supposed to say that," he grumbled and walked past her.

"Wai- where are you going?" Arella asked, but when Silver just kept walking, she continued, "My name's Arella! Thanks for asking, jerkface!"

Arella grumbled, then picked up Matthew again, continuing on through Route 29.

* * *

"He. . .He had long red-hair, but that's all I can really remember of him," Elm sighed as he talked with the Police Officer in front of him, not noticing Arella enter the lab.

"Did he steal anything?"

"Just the Chikorita. . ."

"Elm, I'm back!" Arella called, and both men turned to her, "What's the disaster you called me about?"

"There. . .There was a pokemon stolen from the lab," he looked away.

"Specifically, by a boy with long red hair," the office nodded, "Did you see anyone like that on your way here?"

"Red hair. . ." she thought for a moment before her eyes lit up, "I did actually! Ran into him in Route 27 on the way back!"

"Great, did you get his name?"

"Uh. . ." Arella got very tempted to say something silly, but she decided she had screwed with him enough for one day, "Silver. . .I believe his name was Silver."

"Thank you, I'll make sure to spread the word of this disastrous crime," and with that, he left.

"Anyways, getting off that subject, what was it that Mr. Pokemon wanted me to see again?"

"Oh yeeeaaaah. . ." Arella smiled, setting Matthew down on the ground before setting her backpack on the table and taking out the egg.

"A. . .An egg?" his eyes went wide, "No way! This is a big discovery!" he took the egg from Arella's hands and continued to examine it, "I'll have to do more research on it!"

"And, uh. . .Prof. Oak-"

Elm's eyes snapped to her again, "Professor Oak? [b]The[/b] Professor Oak?"

"Yeah, he gave me a Pokedex n' stuff and-"

"A Pokedex too?" he continued to simply stare at her before smiling, "That's great. He must have seen potential in you as a trainer. You should probably take the Jhoto League Gym Challenge then!"

"Gym Challenge?"

"Yeah, the first gym is up in Violet City. I wish you luck if you do decided to go," he smiled again, "Also, you should take these," he retrieved 5 pokeballs from his desk and handed them to her, "These should help you build a team."

"T-thanks," Arella smiled back, taking the pokeballs before walking back out, Matthew wobbling steadily behind her.


	6. Chapter 5: Getting the Team Going

"Whelp, this is probably the last time we'll ever go through murderous Pidgey route again," Arella smiled, then looked down at Matthew who was standing beside her, "You ready?"

Matthew nodded, and Arella gave a tiny smiled.

"Let's go then," she stepped into the grass, and saw the flock standing right in front of her.

"You," One of the Pidgies said and his eyes narrowed.

"Me," Arella smiled, "Wanna play again?" she pulled out a pokeball.

"She has a pokeball! RUN!" another Pidgey screeched, and all of them scattered except one.

"You're not going to run?" she asked.

"No, I'm not scared of you," he glared at her.

"Good," she chucked the pokeball at him, enveloping in a red light that retreated back into the pokeball. It shaked a couple times, then clicked.

She picked it up, then called the Pidgey back out again.

"'Cause you don't have to be scared of me," she smiled down at him, "Come on Daniel, we need to get to Violet City."

Daniel simply stared at both trainer and Totodile as they walked away before shrugging and hopping after them.

* * *

"You're pretty good Daniel," Arella smiled, sitting on a nearby with Matthew in her arms as he took down another Sentret.

Daniel remained silent, but instead fended off another Pidgey that decided to attack him.

"Why was flock so scared of being captured?"

He took down the Pidgey, then finally looked up at her.

"They're all scared of rotting their lives away in a box," he replied flatly.

"So they rather maul ever other trainer that goes through this route?"

"Not all of them, but. . .you were different for some reason. A lot of them felt like they [b]had[/b] to stop you."

Arella looked down, her smile turning sorrow, "Probably because I'm in the Nuzlocke challenge."

"The Nuzlocke?" Daniel stared at her, than shook his head, "Huh, I guess I don't mind. You look like a careful trainer."

A loud screech suddenly sounded, and all three of them turned to the noise.

"What was that?" Arella asked.

"It sounded like it came from Route 30," the Pidgey stated.

Arella continued to stare that direction for longer, then got up and headed in that direction.

"Where are you going?" Daniel asking, trying to catch up her.

"I'm gonna check it out," Arella replied, still walking ahead, but stopped as soon as she got onto Route 30.

Right in the grass, there was a circle of Pidgies, some scooting closer but instantly hopping back. In the middle was a Weedle, a scratch on its face that was bleeding over its right eye.

"Oh Arceus. . .Matthew, Daniel, scare the Pidgies off!"

"But. . .the Nuzlocke. . ." Daniel started.

Arella winked at him, "The dupe clause, silly"

He shook his head, smiling as he joined Matthew in keeping the Pidgies from their prospective dinner.

"You okay?" Arella asked as she picked up the Weedle.

"I'm. . .I'm fine," it nodded slowly, "I just. . .need to. . .rest"

"Come on, I'll take you to the Pokemon Center," Arella offered, wiping the blood off of its eye as she did.

"Really? Thank you," it smiled, "Can I ask you. . .another favor?"

"Name it."

"I would like. . .to join you."

Arella smiled, tapping her playfully on the head with a pokeball, "Welcome to the team Elizabeth."


	7. Chapter 6: Sprout Tower Meetup

"Ah, dang-nabbit," Arella growled as she tried the door to the Violet City Gym again, to no avail "I guess he's out right now" she turned to her party, which consisted of Elizabeth the newly evolved Kakuna who she was carrying, Matthew standing by her side, Daniel resting on her shoulder, and the newest addition, Fudge the Geodude, who was apparently mute.

"Guess he is delaying the inevitable," Elizabeth sighed.

"We could always check out the tower over there while we're waiting for him to get back," Daniel suggested, gesturing to the tower not too far away.

". . .I dunno, looks kinda creepy," Arella frowned.

"It might also be free exp to make sure nothing happens against Falknor or whatever the hell his name is," he shrugged.

"Falkner," she corrected him.

"As I said, whatever."

She sighed, "Might as well then. . ." she took a step forward, and the sky suddenly grew dark.

"What the-" she looked up, only to see it was night time, "Why did it suddenly become night time?"

"It's light from 6 to 6, and so is dark. You should know this," Daniel stared at her.

"Yeah. . .I guess I just forgot. . ." Arella smiled nervously, "Come on, let's go."

* * *

"'Sprout Tower'?" Arella read out loud the sign in front of the tower, "Why do I have a feeling it's a tower full of Bellsprouts?"

"More experience for me and Liz down there," Daniel flew up from her shoulder, "Are we gonna go in or not?"

"Give me a moment," Arella turned to Fudge, "You, stay out here"

Fudge stared at her in disbelief.

"You're Rock/Ground, Fudge. I don't want to risk you if this really is a tower full of Bellsprouts that only know Vine whip, especially when I still need you for Falkner," Arella gave him a reassuring smile, "I'll let you solo Falkner's gym, trust me."

His expression turned to one of understanding, and Arella knelt down to hug him.

"I'll be back out as soon as possible," she smiled, then entered the tower with the rest of her party in tow.

* * *

"All these freaking Bellsprouts are really getting on my nerves. This HM they keep talking about better be worth it," Arella grumbled as she climbed up another ladder, "Why the hell is there a tower of nothing but old men a Bellsprouts anyways?"

"I doubt any of us wants to know," Daniel sighed.

"Good point. . ." Arella turned to Daniel, then turned back forward to find a Ghastly in her face.

"HOLY SHIT, KILL IT!" Arella stepped back, sheltering her face before realizing what she said. "WAIT, DON'T KILL IT! Even though it creeps the hell out of me. . ."

Elizabeth and Daniel simply sighed while Matthew weakened it with a Water Gun. Arella chucked a pokeball at it, and picked it back up after it clicked.

"Uh. . .yeah. . .I guess I'll name you Nickel, but you're kinda going in the box after this. . ." Arella slowly put the ball on her belt, as if jarring it too much would make the Ghastly come right back out.

And then she noticed Silver right by her, simply staring at her.

"What?" she snapped, "Can't a gi- guy be scared of ghosts? What are you doing here anyways?"

"Leaving," he stated flatly, walking past her, "The sage is a wimp, like you, **Arella.**"

"I'm _sorry _my mom wanted a girl," she retorted, and Silver stopped, "At least I don't look like a girl and have a girly pokemon! Did your parents dress you in pink and give you dolls when you were younger?"

Silver's expression suddenly turned dark and continued to walk.

Arella watched him leave, confused, "Did I. . .hit a nerve?"

Matthew tugged on her pants, "Arewla."

"Yeah, I'm coming," she smiled, turning back to the sage, "Can I get the HM yet?"

He shook his head, "No, I need to see how you treat your pokemon."

"Okay, I guess it won't hurt to murder **more freaking Bellsprouts,**" she grumbled, obviously sick of all the Bellsprouts, "Elizabeth, can you take this one?"

"Yes," Elizabeth replied, then hopped over after Arella set her to the ground as the old man sent out a Bellsprout and a Hoothoot.

"Oh wow, something that isn't a Bellsprout!" Arella gasped, "Matthew, take care of the Hoothoot."

Matthew stepped in front of his trainer, blasting water onto the Hoothoot as Elizabeth sent a flurry of Poison Stings at the Bellsprout.

"Very good," he nodded slowly as he withdrew both now fainted pokemon, "You seem to treat your pokemon with love and care."

"Thank you. . ."

"Please, take this HM."

Arella walked over and accepted it, "What is it anyways?"

"Flash."

Arella frowned, "Really? I go through an entire tower for [b]**Flash**[/b]. Well this was a useless detour."

"I don't think it was entirely useless," Elizabeth commented.

"What do you-" she cut herself off as she turned around and saw not a Kakuna, but a Beedrill, ". . .You look good. . .I'm still sorry about your scar," the trainer walked up to Elizabeth, tracing the scar above her eye with her thumb.

"It's okay, it is a scar I will wear with pride," she nodded, "Not many Weedles encounter any bird and live to tell the tale."

"I guess you're right," Arella smiled, "Come on guys, let's get some rest. All of you deserved it."


	8. Chapter 7: Pikachus and Tails

"Fudge, use Rock Throw again!"

Fudge took a tiny chunk out of himself with his hand before chucking it at the oncoming Pidgeotto. It hit him in the wing, and it spiraled down onto the ground, resting there.

"Dad's bird pokemon. . ." Falkner looked at the fallen Pidgeotto in disbelief before withdrawing it, "I guess I need to train more."

". . .You're Pidgeotto. . .it'll be fine, right?" Arella asked nervously.

"Yes, he'll be fine, nothing a Pokemon Center can't heal," he nodded, then held out a badge, "Here, take it. The rules state I have to give this to you when you beat me."

Arella took the badge, nodding her head in thanks before leaving the gym.

"Fudge, you really did great," Arella smiled at him, squeezing the badge in her hand, and Fudge simply smiled back at her.

"Fudge good!" Matthew cried happily, hugging him. Fudge looked shocked for a minute before giving him a smile as well.

Arella laughed, "Come on guys, lets head to the next town."

* * *

"Come on, Mareeeeep, come ooooon," she slowly set her foot down on a patch of grass, and promptly got squirted in the face.

"What the-" she wiped the water from her face and saw a Wooper smiling back at her from the grass.

". . .Great, another water type," Arella sighed, "Matthew, widdle it down with Water Gun."

Matthew eagerly shot a spout of water at it, and it was sent flying back into the tall grass.

"Shit, is it okay?" she ran after it, her party in tow, just to see it was laying on the grass, still smiling.

". . .I think by the fact it's still smiling, I'm gonna guess it's okay," Daniel blinked.

Arella shrugged and dropped a pokeball on it, "He'll go in the box for now I guess. . ." she put the ball back away.

"Hey, kid."

Arella looked up to see a rather shady looking man looming over her, grinning.

". . .Yes?"

"Want a nice, nutritious Slowpoke tail? Only a million yen," he pulled out a tail from his coat, covered in a sticky substance.

"Oh. . .Arceus," Arella covered her mouth at the sight, then bit her lip and turned to Daniel.

"You don't even have to ask," Daniel said as he continued to glare at the man, then flew up to his face as she walked off, the man screaming in pain.

"I don't understand how people can do such a thing. . ." Arella looked down, "Cutting the tail off of a Slowpoke while its alive and awake. . .they aren't the most alert things, but still. . ."

"People do terrible things in life," Elizabeth nodded as Daniel flew back to join them, "But that's why good people become trainers as well: so they can stop evil."

"Thanks Elizabeth. . ." she smiled, then stopped suddenly when she looked in front of her.

A girl stood in front of her, no older than 6, and sporting the looks of a Pikachu. Both of them simply stared at each other for a while before the girl's ears suddenly perked, and she ran off into the near by cave.

"H-hey, wait!" Arella ran after the girl into the cave, her pokemon following closely behind as she ran through the cave. When she ran out the cave on the other side, however, the girl was no where to be found.

"That was really weird. . ." Arella frowned.

"Arella. . ."

"How the hell did she even get through that cave?"

"Arella."

"I didn't look like she had any pokemon."

"Arella!"

"And why was she dressed like a Pikachu anyways?"

"ARELLA!"

"What?" Arella turned back to her pokemon.

". . .You have a Zubat on your head," Daniel sighed.

Arella blinked, feeling on top of her head and pulling an apparently unconscious Zubat off of her head.

"Maybe I do. . ." she simply stared at it, "I guess I might as well catch it," she got a pokeball out of her bag and opened it.

And a Hoppip jumped in it and it closed.

"What the hell?" Arella clicked the ball, opening and forcing the Hoppip back out

"Can I help you?" she raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry," the Hoppip smiled, "I saw your team, and I just [i]had[/i] to join. You see, being a Hoppip is hard. All we can do is Splash and troll people with our Synthesis move," it sighed, "We can't even defend ourselves! We're just grass type Magikarps!"

". . .And this has anything to do with me how?"

"We actually get quite useful once we our trained, so I was hoping you would be kind enough to me," it smiled again, then added, "Please?"

Arella looked over at the Hoppip, then Daniel, then Matthew, then Elizabeth, then Fudge. When they all shrugged, she turned back to the Hoppip.

"I might as well. It'll give me a full party."

"Oh thank you, thank you," it smiled in delight, "You may call me Hana, and I will forever be in your service."

"Well, with Hana and. . .uh. . .I guess he'll be Alucard," Arella glanced at the unconscious Zubat again, "We have a full party. Now we just have to train for Bugsy. . ."


	9. Chapter 8: Trouble in the Well

"Now Matthew! Use Scratch!" Arella called, and Matthew scratched the Spearow in front of him, sending it flying as Daniel gusted some Pidgies away and Hana tackled herself out of an Ekans' wrap.

"I think that should be enough. . ." Arella smiled, then her smiled faded into shock as all three of them started glowing. When the glow faded, they were all different. Matthew a Croconaw, Daniel a Pidgeotto, and Hana a Skiploom.

"Yeah, we're definitely ready," Arella grinned, "Come on, let's go to. . .town?" Arella slowed as she noticed a weird looking man standing in front of a well.

". . .Kay, that's just weird," she sighed, continuing on to town.

"I've heard from other Pidgies that there's a pokeball maker near here," Daniel commented.

"Really?" she gasped, "Sweet, free pokeballs!"

It was then an old man stormed by her, grumbling under his breath as he walked straight past Arella,

"Aaaand I think that was him that just passed," Daniel watched as he walked past.

"Really?" Arella turned around and watched him yell something about 'Team Rocket' and 'slowpokes' at the strange looking man as he ran back into the well.

". . .We should probably help him," she blinked, still watching him as he followed the strange looking guy down the well.

Matthew, seemingly agreeing in advance, ran towards the well.

"Matthew! Wait up!" Arella broke out in a run after him, following him down the well.

On the ground right next to the ladder was the old man that had just chased the strange looking guy, on his back and obviously in pain.

"Uh. . .are you okay?" she asked, kneeling down next to the man.

"Noo. . .I was chasing that Team Rocket grunt down here. . .when I fell and knocked my back out," he cringed, trying to get up but failing.

". . .Team Rocket?"

"Yes, the gang of villainous thugs that were supposed to have disbanded 3 years ago. . .they're cutting off the tails of all the slowpoke that live in this well."

Arella bit her lip as she stood up, then turned to Matthew, "Matthew, can you take care of the old man for me? I have. . .business to attend to." she turned around and walked further into the well.

* * *

"Proton! Intru- AGH!" the team rocket grunt went down mid yell, the back of his head bleeding.

"Wha-?" Proton looked away from the Slowpoke napping on a rock to see Arella, Daniel and Fudge in tow, the rest in their balls.

"Release the Slowpokes," Arella stated flatly, glaring at the Rocket admin.

Proton grinned, "What? Do you think a 10-year old boy like you is going to be able to boss me around?"

"I don't think, I know."

"I'll get rid of that smugness in an instant! Go Koffing!"

"Daniel, you're up," she nodded to him, and he nodded back, then charging straight on at the Koffing. It dodged, then plugged itself, forcing its gas towards him. In response, Daniel whipped up a Gust, dispersing the gas and blinding the Koffing, and went in for a tackle, striking him hard.

"Koffing, Self Destruct!" Proton yelled.

"Are you crazy? Daniel, Quick Attack!"

The Koffing started glowing, but another quick-speed tackle brought it to the ground where it stopped glowing.

Arella sighed in relief as Daniel came back to her, then looked back at Proton.

"Leave, now."

The Rocket admin grimaced, than looked back at the Slowpoke. A gleam appeared in his eye and he turned back to Arella.

"You want the Slowpokes back? Fine," he turned around, quickly taking out a knife and chopping off a Slowpoke's tail, "But you never said you wanted them back with their tails still intact," he threw the now tail-less Slowpoke at Arella. She stumbled as she caught it, then something snapped in her.

* * *

_It was forever ago, when she was a little kid. She was sitting on the porch during a rather humid summer day, wishing her parents weren't cheapskates and actually had an AC. There were boys yelling in the distance, but that was normal._

_It was then that something caught her eye: A dog running past, without an owner. She assumed a dog in the neighborhood got loose again, till she saw the blood that was trailing behind it._

_Not too far behind it was a boy, not much older than she was, with a knife. It tackled the dog right in front of her house, and all she could do was stare wide-eyed as the boy raised the knife._

_"No one's every going to like you, you stupid dog," she could hear the boy say._

_She didn't remember what happened after that. All she could remember was her mother started calling her name frantically, and she was on top of the boy, choking him as he knife was out of reach. But. . .but the dog was okay. . ._

* * *

"Arella!"

The next thing she knew, Matthew had tackled her, knocking her off of Proton. As soon as her hands were off his neck, he started wheezing and hacking, trying to gain back the air he was deprived off.

"I'm not going to forget this!" he said in a hoarse voice, then ran off.

"What. . .What happened?" Arella asked, wide-eyed and shaken.

"You were choking him," the old man walked up to her, limping at he did, "When your Croconaw helped me up and over here, you were on top of him while your other pokemon were trying to get you off."

". . .I. . .I don't remember. . ." Arella bit her lip as she huddled up against herself while sitting on the floor of the cave, then looked up as she felt something against her leg. The Slowpoke with the freshly cut tail was pawing her leg and looking at her, apparently oblivious to the pain.

"Hey. . ." she smiled weakly, petting it, "Do you want to join us?"

It nodded slowly, so she got up, picking it up as she did, "I'll call you. . .I'll call you Zetta."

"I'd like to thank you again for driving out Team Rocket and saving the Slowpoke," the old man nodded, "My name's Kurt, and I'm a pokeball creator that lives over in Azalea. I'd like you to have this in thanks," he held out a (something) pokeball. She nodded in thanks as she took it, then watched him leave.

"Arella. . .You're okay, right?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she smiled back at him, "Right now we have more important things to worry about right now, like getting this Slowpoke to the Pokemon Center, and defeating the gym leader here. . ."


	10. Chapter 9: Slipped

"It'll take us a minute to clean and bandage him, but your Slowpoke will be fine," Nurse Joy smiled, and Arella couldn't help but smile back..

"I'll be back soon then," she nodded, then walked out of the Pokemon Center with Matthew following behind her. As soon as she did, she called Daniel and Fudge out once again.

"This is a Bug Gym, so it's your guy's time to shine," Arella smiled, "I'll be counting on both of you" she looked over at Matthew, "And you for back-up. Got it?"

All three nodded, and she looked over at the gym looming in front of them, smiling.

* * *

"So you're the gym leader here?"

"Yep," Bugsy smiled, "I've been studying Bug pokemon a long time, so I know everything there is to know about-. . .Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Sorry," Arella shook her head, "I was trying to figure out if you were a guy or a girl. . ."

He frowned, "I'm a guy."

"Well, I was making sure," she grumbled.

"You came here for the badge, right? Then let's get this over with," he took out two pokeballs and tossed them, "Go Kakuna and Metapod!"

"Pupae forms? This should be easy" Arella grinned, "Go Fudge! Use Rock Throw!"

Listening to the orders of his trainer, he threw rocks at both cocoons, smashing them instantly.

"Those were just meat-shields. Go Scyther!" a Scyther came out next, scythes sharp and glaring at Arella.

"Piece of cake, Fudge use Rock-" she was cut off as Daniel sped in from behind her, tackling the Scyther.

"D-Daniel? What are you doing?"

"Fudge got the entire last gym," Daniel stated as he dodged just in time to avoid being split in two by the now angry Scyther, "You think I'm just going to sit there and watch him get all the glory again?"

She sighed, "Fine, take care of it. But the minute your health gets low, I'm switching back to Fudge."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Daniel speed into the Scyther again, then pulled back as quick as he could to avoid its sharp scythes from hitting his wings. It went after it, landing a clean, critical Fury Cutter when it got close, sending Daniel down.

"Daniel! Are you okay?" Arella ran up to him.

"I'm fine," he grimaced, "It wasn't very effective anyways. Fury Cutter is bug type," he took flight again, then sent a rather large gust hurtling towards the Scyther, this time downing it.

"Looks like you win. . ." Bugsy sighed, recalling the Scyther back into its pokeball, "Take this Hive Badge, its yours now," he held out the badge to Arella, and she took it, nodding in thanks.

"Hey. . .Arella?" Daniel asked as they headed back towards the entrance of the gym.

"Yeah Daniel?"

"Thanks for letting me defeat that Scyther."

"No problem."

* * *

"Well. . .Zetta's safely in the pc, and I bought enough healing items to heal an army. . .I think we're ready to go into Ilex Forest," Arella smiled.

"Why did you buy so many Antidotes?" Elizabeth enquired as they headed over to the entrance.

"Well, forests usually have stuff that can poison. . .I don't want to get caught in that forest with no antidotes and a million miles away from healing," she sighed.

"Hey, Arella!"

She turned around to see Silver standing there, a Bayleef by his side. Arella simply stared at him before pointing at him.

"Heeeeeeeey, you remembered my name!"

He sighed, "I did at the Sprout Tower too, dumbass."

"Still, what **are** you doing here anyways?"

"Uh, one, the gym over there," he pointed to the gym, "And two, I heard Team Rocket was over here. . ."

"Team Rocket? Oh, they're long gone. I drove them out."

"You drove out Team Rocket?" Silver stared at Arella, examining her, before he burst out laughing, "A wimp like you drove out Team Rocket? Yeah right."

Her eyes narrowed, "I'll make you eat those words. Go Matthew!"

Matthew stepped out in front of Arella, eyes fixed on Silver. He sighed, shaking his head "Even when evolved your pokemon still looks weak. Take care of him Ghastly!" he sent out a Ghastly.

Right as the Ghastly popped out, it ate a Water Gun to the face, knocking it down instantly.

"Someone needs to train their pokemon a little more."

Silver only grimaced, calling back the Ghastly and using the next pokeball on his belt: a Zubat.

"Hey, I have one of those too," she grinned, "Matthew, I'm going to let Alucard take this for the experience"

Matthew nodded to her, stepping back as she called Alucard.

"Don't tell me this is going to be an endless Leech Life battle," Silver's Zubat sighed, "Those are so laaaaaaaaame"

"No, good sir, it isn't going to be one of those," Alucard nodded, then charged at the other Zubat, biting into its body until it went down, "Because my trainer went through the trouble of raising me until I learned bite."

"Worthless pokemon," Silver grumbled, calling back the Zubat, "Go Bayleef!"

"Oh dear. . ." The Bayleef sighed, "Look, can we not fight? Call this a truce or something?" it asked.

"Really now? You don't want to fight?" Alucard questioned.

The Byaleef's facial expression suddenly turned into an evil grin, "Nah, just kidding," he then charged at Alucard with a tackle, but he simply flew up higher.

"You know, good sir, you should get better at lying. I'm sure it will help a lot," he flew back down, biting onto the back of the Bayleef's neck.

"Holy shit! What is doing? Oh Arceus, what is doin- Woooaaahh, I feel kinda woozy," the plant starter suddenly started swaying, then fell to its side.

"I do say, Bayleef blood does taste quite good," The Zubat said happily, returning to Arella.

"Look, you just won because my pokemon were weak," Silver crossed his arms.

"Well maybe if you treated them with a little more love and respect they would be a little better," she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Why are you following such a girly concept?"

"Maybe because I am a gir- shit!" she covered her mouth, then ran towards Ilex forest, her pokemon following close behind.

". . .That guy. . .is a girl?" Silver asked himself, still looking at where Arella was standing as if she was still there.


	11. Chapter 10: The Promise

"Arceus damnit. . ." Arella sighed, looking down at her feet as she treaded through the Ilex Forest, "How the hell am I supposed to face him now? I just said I was a girl to his face. . ."

Matthew walked a little faster so he was right next to her, then pulled on her pant leg.

"What is it?" Arella looked down.

"You. . .never told us. . .anything."

Arella stopped, then turned around and looked at the rest of her pokemon. Daniel shook his head, Fudge shrugged, and Alucard simply looked around, confused..

". . .I . . .I guess I never did. . ." she bit her lip.

"Now would be a really good time for an explanation," Daniel sighed.

"Wait, no! Come back!"

Arella turned back around to where the noise was coming from, then sighed.

"After we figure out what's going on, okay?" She gave a nervous smile to her party, then ran towards the noise, all 4 of them following her. Eventually they came upon a boy that was looking around rather nervously.

"My boss is going to kill me. . ." he sighed, biting his lip.

"What's the matter?" Arella asked as she walked up to him.

"The Farfetch'd we used to cut down trees for Charcoal just ran off. . .Arceus he's going to kill me"

"We can get it back," she smiled at him, "Where'd it run off to?"

"Over that way. . .And, uh. . .thanks."

"No problem," she nodded, then ran off.

* * *

It was almost dead silent in the forest, besides the humming of bugs and the rustling of trees. A single Farfetch'd stood in the forest path, poking at various parts of the forest ground with his onion stalk.

He perked up when he heard footsteps behind him, than ran off as someone tried to grab him from behind.

"So fragging close," Arella grumbled, picking herself up from the forest floor. From the sounds emanating in the distance, her team was having the same exact difficulty with the stupid bird.

"I think we're going to need a different tactic," Daniel stated as he flew over to his trainer, "That bird is just way too fast."

"I'll say," she picked a burr off of her jacket, "Any fantastic ideas?"

"We could always chase it to that boy," he suggested .

"Let's just try the sneaking up on him for a little longer. . ." she sighed.

"You just want to put off telling us the truth longer, don't you?"

"No I don't!"

Daniel shook he head, "Suit yourself"

* * *

"Okay, so you were right. Big fragging deal" Arella grumbled, picking forest floor objects out of her hair as she walked back over to the boy who now had possession of the Farfetch'd again.

"Thanks again for your help," he nodded, smiling, "You guys are heading to Goldenrod, right?"

"Yeah," she replied, picking off another burr.

"You better be careful then. I've heard that the leader in that town is really strong."

"Thanks for the tip," she smiled, then walked farther through the forest.

"Arella. . .Are you going to tell us now?" Matthew asked quietly as they came up upon what looked like a shrine.

". . .Yeah, sure. . ." she sighed, looking up at the clearing above the shrine that revealed the stars in the sky, "It's getting dark, so we should rest here anyways. . ."

She released Hana and Elizabeth from their pokeballs and silently settled down next to the shrine, her pokemon looking at her expectantly.

"3 days ago. . .I just woke up here in this world," she drew up her knees to her chest, "I was a girl in my world, but when I woke up here I was a guy, and it was like I was living here for years. . .I had a 'mom', I had been living in New Bark for years, and I knew Professor Elm. It's like I replaced someone, took their life," she sighed, "I don't know how I got here, how to get back, or how I even changed genders."

"So you're not even from here?" Elizabeth asked.

"No. . .I'm not from here," she looked down at the forest floor, but looked up again when she felt something against her leg. Matthew had one of his claws on Arella's leg as he looked her in the eye.

"Then I'll help you get back," he nodded.

"**We** will help you get back home," Daniel corrected Matthew.

"Just tell us what to do," Hana chimed in.

She could feel tears welling up in her eyes as she realized what just happened. She brushed them aside and smiled, "Thanks guys. . .but for now, we need to get some sleep so we're prepared for the next gym."


	12. Chapter 11: Awkward Circumstance

It was awfully quiet in the forest. The bugs were humming very quietly, and there was almost no breeze, as if the forest was letting Arella and her party sleep peacefully. Well, all but one of them.

Alucard was hanging from a tree, over looking the party sleeping. He was nocturnal, so he didn't sleep at night, which made him the automatic watch dog for the party, which he didn't mind. It gave him something to do.

"You're still awake?"

Alucard looked down to see the now awake Hana looking up at him from the ground.

"I'm nocturnal," he replied, "I don't sleep during the night."

"That's silly."

"It's how we Zubats live. That is why our eyes are very small, because we don't need them during the night."

Hana didn't reply. Instead, she jumped up to the tree branch and sat next to where he hung.

"It's a nice view from here," she smiled, "You can see the stars."

"Ah, yes. I almost forget they are there."

"Really? How do you forget about the stars?"

"The same way you forget about the sun."

Hana giggled, "I guess you're right."

* * *

"Oh goodie, you're awake!"

Arella could only stare at the girl that was standing above her, the girl from Union Cave. After a while, she sat up and looked around, but all she could see was white.

"Okay, maybe not awake, but I'm glad you're finally here," the girl smiled.

"What do you mean here? Look, who are you?" Arella asked.

"You're in your dream. Also, I'm Ellen, and I'mma Pikachu," she replied.

"But, you're a-"

"Yeah, I know," she sighed, "Long stor- Oh, looks like your gonna wake soon."

Before she could question the gir- er, Pikachu- any further, Arella fell into a sea of black.

She woke up with a start again. But this time, her pokemon surrounded her, staring at her.

"You okay?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, bad dream," Arella lied, smiling, "You guys all here?"

"Yep, all here," Hana smiled.

"Let's get to Goldenrod then," Arella got up and the whole party walked farther into the Ilex Forest, towards Goldenrod and the third gym.

* * *

"Wow. . ." Arella gasped.

"It's so. . ." Hana blinked.

"Big," Elizabeth finished. She, the rest of the party, and their trainer all stood on the border of Goldenrod city, all three girls fixated by how simply massive the city was.

"Girls," Daniel sighed, "If you three decide to go on a shopping spree, I'm going back down to train."

". . .Shopping isn't exactly one of my interests either, unfortunately," Alucard avoided eye contact with any of the girls.

Fudge remained quiet, as usual, but seemed to agree with the other two.

"Then go off and train. Me an' Elizabeth an' Arella are going to have some girl time," Hana stuck out her tongue.

". . .Just be safe, okay?" Arella smiled, turning to Matthew, "You can go with them if you want to. I'm not stopping you."

He seemed to ponder this for a while, looking guilty at some points before running after the rest of the guys that had already left.

"Come on guys, I bet the department store's loaded," Arella smiled.

* * *

"This place. . .is huge. . .I'm pooped" Arella sighed as she trudged up the stairs to the sixth floor.

"It was nice to look around though," Hana smiled, "I'm so glad I decided to go with you!"

"She's right, it was a nice diversion," Elizabeth nodded.

"Yeah, it was fun," she nodded back, the noticed the vending machines, "You guys want something?"

Both girls shook their head, and the trainer shrugged.

"Fine by me. . .I'm just gonna get a lemonade."

"Oh phooey!"

All three turned towards a girl about the same age as Arella with pink hair, digging through her purse.

"I thought I had more change. . ." she frowned as Arella digged through her pockets. She found a coin and walked over to the girl, holding it out to her.

"Here," she smiled, and the girl smiled back.

"Thanks, I thought I wasted my money for a minute," she smiled, accepting the coin as Arella bought a lemonade in the vending machine next to her.

". . .You wanna sit and chat for a bit?" she offered as Arella opened her lemonade and took the first sip.

She nearly choked. The girl wanted to chat with her? She knew she was in a guy's body right now, but still. . .

"U-uh. . .Sure" Arella gave her a tiny smile in exchange for the girl's bright smile that she gave back as they sat down at a nearby table.

"What's your name?" the girl asked, sipping a Fresh Water.

"A-Arella."

"That's a pretty girly name for a guy. . ."

"My mom wanted a girl," she smiled nervously "How about you?"

"Whitney. What brought you up here?"

"Uh, those two wanted to come," she gestured over to Elizabeth and Hana, "They're the only girls of the party, so I kinda felt obliged."

Whitney giggled, "You're pretty nice for a guy. Most of the guys around here are jerks."

"U-uh, thanks," Arella blushed, unsure of what to say when something ringed. Whitney pulled out a PokeGear and her expression turned into a pout.

"I'm sorry, my friend's are calling me back," she got up, then flashed another smile at Arella, "It was nice talking to you."

"Y-yeah," Arella managed to smile back at her and watched as she left, then her head fell to the table and she groaned.

"You like her," Elizabeth sighed.

"Wha-" Arella's head snapped back up, "No I don't!"

"Admiiiiiiiit iiiiiiit," Hana nudged her, and she buried her face in her hands,

"I'm a girl in a guy's body. How the hell am I supposed to like a girl?"

"You probably have the brain of a guy right now too," the Beedrill pointed out, "Just because you're supposed to be a girl doesn't mean you're brain's going to cooperate."

"I guess you're right," Arella sighed, "It's still kinda weird though. . ."

"If you wanna take your mind off of it, we can go check to see what the boys are doing," Hana suggested.

"Better then nothing," the trainer agreed, "It would be good to make sure they're aren't trying to kill themselves."

"Agreed," Elizabeth nodded.


	13. Chapter 12: Rolling Cow Complex

"Yeah, how come you don't talk?"

Fudge avoided eye contact with Alucard, both in their newly evolved states as all 4 of the boys stood in the south outskirts of Goldenrod.

Daniel whacked the Golbat with his wing, "It's because he's mute. He hasn't talked ever, probably not before he joined us, and definitely not after."

"That's retarded. He's probably retarded too," Alucard said, then earned a water gun to the face, knocking him to the ground and unconscious.

"Matthew's right, you were better as a Zubat," Daniel shook his head.

"Hey guys, we're back," the other three boys turned to Arella walking towards them, Hana and Elizabeth in tow.

"Uh. . .what happened to Alucard?" Hana asked as she noticed him on the ground.

"He evolved, then he nearly got knocked out by a Drowzee," the Pidgeotto shrugged, "We're ready for the gym if you want to go now."

"That would be go-" It was then Arella noticed Fudge, standing there timidly. Arella couldn't help but smile and quickly hugged him.

"Fudge! You evolved! You look so strong now!" she hugged him a little tighter, and the Graveler just stood there, unsure of what to do.

"Arella. . .Gym," Elizabeth sighed.

"Right, sorry!" she let go of Fudge, then called back Alucard into his ball, "You two ready as well?" she turned to the two other girls.

"Ready as we'll ever be," Hana bounced.

"The same as her," the Beedrill nodded.

"To the Goldenrod gym then!" Arella started walking, the rest following. Fudge continued to stand there before stumbling to follow the group on his short legs.

* * *

"You've been doing good Fudge. I'm really glad you evolved," Arella smiled, walking away from yet another trainer that he managed to beat by himself. Besides him, Matthew was also walking with Arella, the rest in their pokeballs.

Fudge looked away, and Matthew touched a paw on his rocky body in a reassuring matter, "She means it, trust me."

Fudge seemed to understand, and Arella smiled again, "You two really get along together, don't you? It's cu-. . .Oh. . .crap" she suddenly stopped as she recognized the gym leader that stood before her.

Whitney.

"Surprised? I'm the leader of this gym," Whitney smiled, "Everyone was talking about pokemon, so I decided to get on board too! So now I'm the leader of this gym full of cute pokemon!"

"Well, if you're the gym leader, I won't go easy on you then," Arella nodded, "You know what to do Fudge"

"We're starting then? Go Clefairy!" she threw a pokeball, and a rather cute Clefairy came out, dancing a little.

"Clefairy, use Metrenome!"

"Not a chance! Fudge, start out with Magnitude"

Clefairy was about to attack, but Fudge acted first, stomping the ground to make the earth shake. Magnitude 10, and the Clefairy didn't stand a chance.

"Oh phooey," she frowned, calling back the Clefairy, "All well, I haven't gotten serious yet! Go Milktank!"

The ground tremored a little as the female cow came out, mooing what seemed to be a battle cry.

"Go on Fu-" she cut herself off as one of pokeballs glowed, and Hana came out.

"You let Fudge have the whole gym again. I wanna turn!" she pouted, "I'll be really useful, I swear!"

She sighed, then shook her head, "Fine, but same rules go for you."

"You can count on me!" Hana nodded.

"A Skiploom? Milktank, use Rollout!"

The Milktank eagerly obeyed, curling to a ball and rolling at incredibly speeds towards Hana. She bounced at the last second, then spread a purple powder on the cow as it rolled back around, poison power.

"Milktank, stop and stomp that floating flower!"

Again, the Milktank obeyed, rolling to a stop and standing back up under the Skiploom. Hana tried to change her landing to elsewhere, but to no avail as the Milktank readied to stomp her. She landed, but tried to bounce away and got her foot stomp, grounding her again.

Hana screamed in pain, trying to get back up buy failing. The Milktank saw an opportunity then and used Rollout again, this time hitting the grounded Skiploom with full force and sending her flying at Arella.

"Jesus Hana, are you okay?" she asked, catching the Skiploom, "Please tell me you're still alive."

"Y-yeah" Hana gave her a weak smile, "Please, let someone else take care of it. . .it's poisoned, so it should go down eventually."

Arella shook her head, but couldn't help but smile, "Okay, get some rest," she returned Hana to her pokeball, then looked over at Matthew. Matthew nodded at her, then stepped out in front, glaring at the Milktank.

In response, the Milktank rolled up again, rolling at an even higher speed. The Croconaw, however, stood his ground, simply watching the rolling bulldozer come at him.

"Matthew, dodge!"

He didn't listen to Arella's command. Instead, right before the rollout connected, he grabbed the Milktank, sliding back as he did to slow it down and digging his claws into the cow as he did. The cow didn't seem to like it at all, so instead starting spinning the other way, rolling out of the alligator's grip and spinning around him as fast as it could, catching Matthew in surprise as it connected to his back, sending him flying almost as far as Hana did.

"Matthew!" Arella screamed, her eyes wide. He tried to recover, but by the time he was about to get up, the Milktank was already on him and about to connect again. . .

When it suddenly started slowing down to a stop, the Milktank flopping onto the floor unconscious.

"Oh Arceus. . ." Arella ran over to Matthew, kneeling down next to him and hugging him, "I'm so glad you're okay."

"You. . .You meanie!" Arella turned to Whitney, who started crying, wiping the tears form her eyes. She froze, unsure of what to do, but eventually got up and walked over to her, sighing.

"Look, uh. . .you can use my shoulder if you want," Arella blushed a little, and the gym leader's face collapsed into her shoulder, sobbing into her jacket. After a while, she stood back up straight, wiping her face.

"I. . .I'm sorry. . .I get like that when I loose," she looked down, embarrassed, "Oh, almost forgot," she dug through her pocket and produced the badge, "It's the Plain Badge, the proof that you beat me, and it's yours," she managed to smile.

"Uh. . .t-thanks," she accepted the badge.

"And, one more thing," she leaned over and kissed Arella on the cheek, making her blush beet red.

"T-thank you again," she nodded, then briskly walked out of the gym, Matthew and Fudge in tow.

"Arella. . .how much did we miss when you guys when to the Department store?" Matthew asked as they walked out.

"Uh. . .A. . .a lot," she bit her lip, "Get Hana or Elizabeth to explain it to you. . ."


	14. Chapter 13: Tree Fun

The sun was starting to set on the grassy route, and the natural wild life was starting to quiet down, ready to fall asleep.

The unnatural wild life, however, had seemed to take interest in an apple grove that they had run into, which amused Arella to no end, and was definitely a welcome break from the strenuous training they went through that day.

Fudge was standing below one of the apple trees, letting Matthew stand on him so he could reach the ripe apples that hung on the trees. Alucard, now a Crobat, was hanging off from a tree branch watching them as Hana, now a Jumpluff, watched below and Elizabeth picked her own apple.

"You're not going to join them?" Arella asked Daniel, who was perched at her side.

"No, I'm not a very big fan of fruit," he shook his head.

"Oh, that one looks pretty good!" Hana exclaimed, jumping up and grabbing onto the apple she just pointed out, only to be left hanging by it on the branch.

"I guess you forgot you're only a little bit heavier than the apple," Elizabeth remarked.

"Yeah, wasn't the smartest of me," Hana smiled, swaying back and forth on the apple when the stem snapped and she fell back down.

"Idiot. What am I going to do with you?" Alucard flew down and caught her and the apple, both unharmed.

"Uuuhhh.. . .put me down?"

"Besides that," he shook his head, setting her down and landing right next to her, "Just. . .Just be more careful, okay?"

"Okay!"

Matthew dropped down from Fudge, a couple apples in hand. He smiled as he gave a couple of the Graveler before walking back to Arella, holding out two very red apples.

"Thank you," Arella smiled, accepting them both and biting into one.

"Arella, we should probably try to make it to Ecutreak before the sun sets. . ." Daniel looked up at the sky.

". . .Guess you're right," Arella frowned, getting up before calling, "Hey guys, let's hurry it up to Ecutreak!"

The other 5 pokemon all made some form of 'awww', but followed anyways.

Until a tree blocked their path.

". . .Uh. . .what _is_ that?" Hana asked.

"It's a tree," the Pidgeotto rolled his eyes.

"I know it's a tree!" Hana glared at him, "It just looks weird!"

"She's right," Arella sighed, "It looks weird."

Apparently thinking ahead of everyone else, Matthew shot water at the odd-looking tree. It seemed to quiver a little, then turned around, showing a rather not pleased face.

"I don't think it liked that. . ." Hana gulped.

The tree charged at Arella, but Matthew shot it out of the way, knocking it to the ground.

"Uhhhh. . ." the trainer started digging through her bag "pokeball, pokeball, pokeball, POKEBALL!" she finally exclaimed as she found a pokeball, then threw it at the weird tree. It wiggled three times, then clicked and disappeared.

"That was indeed a very odd tree," Alucard blinked.

"Yeah, being attacked by a tree is a first," Arella sighed, then looked to the right and saw Violet City sitting there.

". . .We just went in a giant ass circle, didn't we?" she asked.

"You didn't notice?" Elizabeth asked.

"Shush, I'm directionally challenged!" she grumbled, "But, at least it means we don't have to book it to Ecutreak, come o-" she stopped in her tracks as she noticed a different entrance that she swore wasn't there before.

"Is it just me, or was that not there before?" Hana asked.

"I. . .think that was all of us. . ." Alucard's voice softened.

"Let's go check it out then," Daniel shrugged, flying towards the entrance. The rest hesitated, but eventually followed him.

* * *

"'Ruins of Alph'? This place looks kinda sketchy. . ." Alucard commented as he examined the weird writings on the wall. The other 5 were exploring the odd looking cavern as well as Arella looked like she was fidgeting with something.

"Um, Arella. . .are you even sure you're allowed to fiddle with that?" Daniel asked, finally noticing her.

"The lady outside said I could," she shrugged.

"Wait, there was a lady outside?" Hana popped up from behind the stone table that she was fiddling with.

"Yeeeaaah. . ." Arella raised an eyebrow as she looked up at Hana.

"I don't know about you guys, but I believe I didn't see anybody. . ." Elizabeth sighed.

"Hmm. . .I swore I saw someone," Arella shrugged, continuing to fiddle with the stone tablet.

"Uh. . .Arella?"

"What is it Hana?"

"Is that supposed to glow?" she pointed down with one of her arms to the now glowing tablet.

". . .You know what? I'm not su-" she was cut off as the room started shaking violently.

"I swear it wasn't me!" Alucard sharply turned around.

Arella opened her mouth to say something, but then the floor disappeared from under her and she fell into the darkness, screaming.


	15. Chapter 14: Ruin Sights

"Ugh. . .what the hell happened?" Arella asked herself groggily as she slowly got up. She looked around, but the place was so dark she could barely even see a foot in front of her. Frantically, she turned around to see if she could see any better, but instead only saw a rather weird shape with an eye staring at her.

"Jesus Christ! Matthew, ki-" she stopped herself when she remembered what happened: The tablet, the glowing, the rumbling, and the floor disappearing from under her.

The shape continued to stare at her, but then the eye closed as if it was smiling and it rubbed itself against Arella as if it was a cat.

"Uh. . .I guess you're pretty friendly then," Arella laughed nervously, "So. . .uh. . .do you have a name?"

The eye stared at her once more, then thoughts started to pour into her minds, thoughts that weren't her own, until it rested on one word: Caesar.

"So you're Caesar then?" Arella asked, and it nodded as best as is could, looking like it was smiling again, then the thoughts returned once more.

_Follow. . .me. . ._ Arella heard the pokemon say in her head, and it floated off. As quickly as she could, she got up and ran after the pokemon, almost loosing it in the process. Eventually, they seemed to exit the ruins and onto. . .a mountain peak?

Arella looked nervously over the side and gulped, "That's. . .a long drop

_Look. . .Look. . .that. . .way_ she heard, and she looked forward. In front of her was a boy that must have been only a year or two over her age, standing at the edge of the peak and seemingly watching the clouds roll by. Eventually, a Pikachu ran straight through her and jumped up onto the boys shoulder.

"Where exactly did you take me?" Arella turned to Caesar, but he continued to only look ahead, watching. After a while, she grumbled and turned back to where the boy was standing. Somehow, while she wasn't looking, the Pikachu had turned into a little girl dressed as a Pikachu.

"Red Red Red Red Red! Guess what?" she poked him as she sat on his shoulder.

". . .What?"

"I can go back to original form for a little bit now. Maybe not being exposed to the virus makes it go away after a while!" she smiled.

". . .I doubt it."

"Ellen might be right. . ." a voice said, and Arella suddenly noticed the 4 other pokemon that were sitting near 'Red'. A Venusaur, a Charizard, a Blastoise, and a Snorlax, all of them girls dressed as pokemon.

"Still, we got to listen to Red, Mercury," The Charizard sighed.

Red remained silent.

"Still. . ." The Venusaur looked down, bringing her knees up to her chest and dragging her finger along the mountain dirt.

"You too Venus?" The Charizard looked over at the Venusaur, then turned to the Snorlax, "What about you Jupiter?"

The Snorlax just yawned, scratched it's side, then rolled over.

"Be quiet Mars," Ellen glared at the Charizard before turning back to Red, "I know you're just trying to help us, trying to find a way to get us all back to normal, but you're not the only one. . .you gotta listen to us too."

Red remained quiet, continuing to watch the clouds roll by as all eyes were on him (except Jupiter's). It was after a while the he suddenly tensed up, and he turned his head to face Arella.

Arella had to suppress a gasp when she saw his eyes. His eyes. . .his eyes were blood red, as if his eyes had lost their white pigment. And they just stared at her, unmoving, as if he could actually see her.

"So you're person, Ellen. . .he's a guy?" Red finally asked, his eyes unmoving.

"Well. . .technically he's a _girl_, but I couldn't find any girl suitable bodies," Ellen looked the other way.

"Caesar. . .I want to get out of here. . .now. . .please," Arella said quietly, her eyes still fixed on his, "Please, just get me out of here. . .those eyes."

She wasn't sure if the pokemon had heard her until the mountain suddenly changed back into the ruins, and Arella collapsed onto the floor.

_I'm. . .sorry. . ._ Caesar looked down at her as she sat on the floor, her face buried in her knees.

"It's okay. . ." Arella looked up, managing to give him a tiny smile, "You. . .showed me who I needed to look for."

"Arella!

"Arella, answer me!"

Arella and Caesar turned towards the origin of the voice. She knew who those voices belonged to. . .

"Matthew? Daniel? Is that you guys?" Arella called back, and she could just make out the shapes of the two pokemon running towards her.

"Arella!" Matthew got there first, panting a little as he stopped in front of her, "What. . .what happened?"

"I fell down here I guess. . ." she sighed, getting up, "And I met Caesar over there," she gestured to the Unown next to her, "And uh. . .he showed me something. . .I know who I need to look for now."

"Know who to look for for what?" Daniel asked as he caught up.

"To get out of here. I. . .I think one of his pokemon brought me here."

Matthew rested a paw on her leg, grabbing her attention, "Let's just get out of here, okay? Everyone's still worried."

"Yeah. . ." Arella smiled, then turned to Caesar, "Do you want to come with us?"

The Unown hesitated for a bit before finally nodding.

"Come on then, the rest of them are waiting," Daniel sighed and flew ahead, the rest following.


	16. Chapter 15: Dance Theater Battle

"Finally, Ecutreak," Arella sighed in relief as she walked into the town's border.

"It was a 5 minute walk from Violet," Daniel sighed.

Arella didn't reply, but instead stuck her tongue out at Daniel before continuing to speak, "Anyways, we should probably stop at the pokemon center real quick, just in case."

As she walked over to the pokemon center, another man came rushing out, bumping in to her.

"Oh, sorry," he shook his head, then noticed her pokemon, "You're a pokemon trainer, correct?"

"Uhh. . .why?"

"Well, I was fixing some stuff in the pokemon center when I found this little guy," he reached into a completely oversized lab coat pocket and took out an Eevee, still sleeping. Arella had to suppress to urge to oogle over it.

"I can't really take care of it, so. . .would you mind?"

"No at all," Arella smiled, taking the Eevee from him.

"Thanks again!" he ran off, waving as he did.

"Weird guy," Hana commented.

"Eh, it doesn't really matter," she shrugged, then turned back to her party, "Okay guys, pokeballs. Now."

One or two of them made a small complaint, but went in anyways before she clipped them back to her belt and went inside the pokemon center, still carrying the sleeping Eevee.

"Welcome," the nurse on the other side of the counter smiled at her as she came in, "Do your pokemon need healing?"

"Uh, yeah. Been a pretty rough couple of days," she handed the belt to her, and the nurse handed it to another nurse.

"We'll have them ready in a little bit," she nodded.

"So. . .uh. . .who was the guy who ran out of here?"

"Oh, Bill? He fixes out machines from time to time, and he designed the PC system over there," she gestured to the computer.

"He _designed_ that?" her eye's widened.

"Yep, he's super smart," the nurse smiled again, "Did he give you the Eevee?"

"Yeah, he said he couldn't really take care of it."

"It's no wonder, he's always inside doing work back at his home in Goldenrod?"

"He lives in Goldenrod?" Arella asked.

"Yes, though his grandfather lives all the way in Kanto," she nodded, then the other nurse came back in and handed her the belt, "Oh, looks like they're done all ready. Here you go" she handed the belt to Arella and she took it, putting it back on.

"You're new here, right?" the nurse asked before she turned around to leave.

"Yeah, just stopping by for the gym."

"I would recommend checking out the dance theater too. That is, is you're into dance. . ." she shrugged.

"I'll give it a look," Arella nodded, and walked out.

* * *

Arella almost froze when the door creaked as she opened it, sounding as loud as a jet plane with the dead-silent audience and the super quiet music. The 5 girls up on the stage didn't seem to mind though, continuing to dance and not paying attention to her.

It wasn't until she got near the front that the one on the far left noticed her. She only gave a quick glance, but seemed to be able to secretly signal to the other 4 girls to glance at her as well, one at a time.

When the music started to fade, they all stopped and looked over at Arella.

"You're Arella, correct?" one asked.

"Elm told us all about you," another nodded.

"He's right, you are different," the third smiled.

"You seem a lot more powerful," the fourth still seemed to be scanning Arella up and down.

"Do you mind if we test you on that?" the fifth asked as well.

"What do you mean by that?" Arella cocked her head to the side, confused.

"We're not just dancers."

"We're also trained in the skills of pokemon battling."

"So, would you like to battle?"

"All 5 of us?"

She pondered this for a moment, then shrugged, taking two pokeballs off her belt, "Sure, why not? Go Daniel and Elizabeth!"

"Only 2 pokemon?" one of them giggled as the Pidgeotto and the Beedrill were sent out.

"They're stronger than they look."

"If you say so," another smiled, and all 5 of them sent out their pokemon: Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Umbreon, and Espeon.

"2 against 5, pretty unfair," Elizabeth sighed.

"For them," Daniel remarked, "I'll take the Flareon and Espeon if you take the Jolteon."

"Deal."

They both took off at once, Elizabeth immediately heading for the Umbreon and firing it with a Twin-Needle as Daniel decided to get the Vaporeon out of the way, dodging it's water gun before blowing it away with gust.

"Now the hard part," Elizabeth sighed, looking around and seeing that only the Flareon, Espeon, and Jolteon were still up. What she didn't see, however, was the fire ball that was heading towards her.

"Look out!" Daniel shoved her out of the way and blocked the fire with his wing, singing it a little.

"You're burned," she commented.

"I'll be fine," the Pidgeotto sighed, "What you need to do is take care of the Jolteon."

Elizabeth nodded, diving for the Jolteon as Daniel noticed Espeon was readying a Confusion aimed for the Beedrill. He dived at the Psychic, breaking it's concentration before dissolving another fireball mid-air with his gusts.

As Daniel was busy with that, Jolteon darted around the stage, dodging her needles before jumping up onto her and biting into her arm. She winced, but took advantage of the moment to poison the electric-type, surprising it into letting go of her arm and falling to the ground right as the Pidgeotto finished off the Flareon with another Gust.

"You're good," she smiled at Daniel.

"So are you," he nodded back at her.

"No wonder Elm was talking about you," one of the kimono girls smiled as all of them called back their pokemon.

"You're definitely strong. . .and different."

"It's almost as if you aren't from here at all."

Arella bit her lip, "Uh. . .thanks."

"I would suggest visiting the Burned Tower," another one of the kimono girls suggested.

"There is said to be legendary pokemon there."

"Perfect for a trainer like you."

"Thanks again," the trainer nodded, walking towards the exit of the dance theater, Daniel and Elizabeth in tow.

"Daniel. . .how the hell can they figure out I'm not from here?" she asked as she closed the dance theater door behind her.

"They probably meant it in a totally different way than you think," Daniel sighed.

"But more importantly, do you think we should follow their advice?" Elizabeth asked.

"Sure, I mean. . .it shouldn't hurt to visit a tower," Arella shrugged, "Besides, it's nice to stop and take a look at the sights once and a while."

"Like the Ruins of Alph?"

". . .Let's just go."


	17. Chapter 16: The Burned Tower

"Well, it's definitely. . .uh. . .burned," Arella bit her lip as she stood outside the fire-damaged tower, "I don't particularly see how this place houses any legendaries."

"Me neither," Elizabeth shook her head, "But if we do go in. . .it looks like this place will be just as burned on the inside as well. I'd suggest you watch your step."

"I'll try," she nodded at the Beedrill before opening the door of the tower and walking inside.

It was hard to even call it a tower anymore. The other floors must have burned off, because all that was left was the part of the bottom floor. The ceiling had also seemed to cease to exist, but the bright sun that shined right overhead failed to penetrate the gloomy darkness of the tower. Planks of wood that must have made up the rest of the tower and survived the fire were strewn about everywhere, as if everyone was too afraid the place would simply collapse if anything moved.

"Damn it. . .they're supposed to be here somewhere. . ." All three heads turned to see Silver, looking around and cursing under his breath before noticing Arella and smirking.

"You're looking for the legendaries too?" he asked.

"Uhhh no. Heard about them, not looking for them," she sighed.

"I doubt they'd waste your time on a wimp like you anyways."

"_Excuse_ me?"

". . .Huh, surprised I didn't notice it before."

Arella raised an eyebrow at the sudden topic change.

"You do act like a girl. No wonder you're such a wimp."

"Okay, that's i-" she stormed over to Silver, but was cut off when she was nearly a step away from him, the floor collapsed from under her, making her instinctively grab on to her rival for balance. But instead, she managed to make the floor crumble more, bringing him down with her.

They landed on a dirt floor, leaving both coughing when the dust kicked up because of their fall.

"Arella! You down there?" Daniel called.

"Y- *cough* Yeah" she managed to answer.

"The hole's not big enough for either us to go through, so we're going to try to find a way to get you out from here," Elizabeth explained, "You search down there."

"Got it!"

". . .Arella?" Silver finally asked.

"Yeah?"

"Get off of me."

"Crap!" she got off of him as fast as if there was a stampede of Taurous going after her, allowing the boy of get off the ground and wipe the dirt off.

"Sorry," Arella sighed. Silver remained quiet, and instead of answering her, walked away, following the tunnel that they now seemed to be stuck in. She grumbled under her breath, but trudged behind him anyways.

"That was rude you know. . ."

"What was rude?" Silver turned to her.

"I apologized, and you just ignored me."

"What am I supposed to say? 'Oh, it's okay that you stormed at me, made me fall in here, then landed on me and didn't even notice it'?"

"At least pretend you aren't such a jerk. You'll get laid easier that way."

"And you would know, how?"

Arella's face turned deep red at the thought, and she quickly hid her face as she replied, "I-I was just saying, jeez. . ."

He only smirked, "I thought as much."

Arella grumbled again, "I could just do the smart thing and turn you in for stealing Elm's pokemon," she turned back to him, "Why the hell do you go and steal stuff and then crusade on telling everyone you hate Team Rocket with the burning fury of a thousand suns?"

The red-head remained silent, but suddenly stopped, making Arella nearly run into him. She opened her mouth to say something, but was shocked into silence as well when she saw what he was looking at.

The tunnel had widened out a considerate amount, accommodating a rather large platform with three even larger statues, all of them dogs of some sort. One stood there, majestic and proud, as the other two seemed to have tried to get away, and failed.

". . .Are those the legendary pokemon you were talking about?" she turned back to Silver, pointing at the statues, "Because I'm pretty sure they aren't living anymore."

"They're legendaries, I doubt they actually die," Silver sighed walking forward, only to rebound back, holding his forehead and cursing.

". . .What happened?"

"There's an invisible wall there or something. . ." he pressed his hands against it, the bottom of his hand depressing as he did.

"Wall?" Arella walked right through where Silver had rebounded, "There's no wa-" she cut off when she saw his hand, then cocked her head, "That's. . .really. . .weird."

"Yeah, only a little," he rolled his eyes.

"Well. . .uh. . .I'll go check out those statues and figure out if they're causing the wall in stuff," she pointed to the statues, "In. . .Incase you think I'm leaving n' stuff."

Without waiting for Silver's reply, she walked over to the platform, wiping the dust off the plaque before reading it.

"'Entei, Raikou, and Suicune: turned to stone because they were used by greed, now freed again by those who pass.' Pass. . .what?" she studied the plaque more to see if it said anything else, but found nothing.

". . .Arella?"

"Yeah?" she turned to Silver.

". . .Are those supposed to glow?"

She turned frantically, remembering the Ruins of Alph, and saw what Silver meant. The statues were now glowing brightly, forcing her to hold up and arm in order not to get blinded.

Then they exploded, enveloping Arella in dust, broken stone, and other debris.


	18. Chapter 17: Jerk

Silver could only stare as the dust settled down, coughing once in a while as he did from the dust. It seemed like eons before it finally settled down enough to see Arella.

Miraculously, none of the debris managed to even touch her, but she was still laying on the ground, unmoving. Behind her, on the platform, were the statues, except they weren't stone anymore, but now flesh, blood, and color.

"Finally, it took them long enough," the spark-tailed one growled, "I thought I'd be stuck like that for another thousand years. Stupid humans. . ."

"Silence, Raikou. The human down there is the one who saved us," The one with the ribbons that mimicked the wind glared at Raikou.

The one that radiated heat and royalty around him remained silent, instead jumping down next to the unconscious Arella and pawing her.

"She seems to not belong here, and yet helps us all the same. . ." He sighed, "The poor girl has a long journey ahead of her," he turned back to Raikou and the other, "Raikou, Suicune, let us be off."

In a flash, all three dogs ran away, going so fast that Silver didn't even notice they had left until the platform was empty. At the same time, the invisible wall faded, making him stumble forward before catching his balance.

He briskly walked over to Arella, remaining silent as he stopped beside her and just looked down at her. She didn't seem hurt at all, but was unconscious and covered in a large amount of dust. He stared for a little longer, then sighed, kneeling down and wiping the dirt off of her.

A thought crossed him mind as he did that: How did the last dog know that Arella was a girl? He only looked at her and suddenly knew, he had to have her accidentally blab it.

He sighed again, shaking her head. The longer he stayed around this girl, the more confused he got.

* * *

"Well, it looks like the blast didn't kill you. That's always good."

Arella's eyes snapped open, and she saw that familiar Pikachu-girl staring right back at her in the familiar white endless plain..

". . .Why the hell am I here?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, the blast when you freed the dogs kinda knocked you unconscious, but I redeemed some brownie points with my friends to make sure you weren't hurt," she beamed.

". . .Brownie points? Why the hell did you not want me hurt anyways?"

"Well, I summoned you here, it's my job to keep you alive," Ellen shrugged, "You're pretty important anyways."

"Important? Important how?"

Ellen's facial expression suddenly changed, "What, did you think I just summoned you here just for the hells of it? You have a role to fulfill."

Arella sighed, burying her face in one of her hands, "I swear to Arceus if you go into that 'destiny' crap."

"I woooooon't," she pouted, "But I'll let you know that I wasn't always like this. I used to be a Pokemon."

"How-"

"Long story. Anyways, looks like you're waking up. I'll see you again soon!" Ellen waved, and before Arella could speak, she fell through the floor.

* * *

". . .Why do I feel like I got caught in a dust storm?"

Daniel and Elizabeth's attention suddenly shot to Arella, whose eyes were half open groggily and staring at the ceiling.

"The dust from the explosion probably," Elizabeth nodded, "More importantly, are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine. . .kinda," Arella's face scrunched up as she slowly sat up, wiping the dust off of her jacket, "What happened to Silver?"

"He left as soon as we got here. . .which wasn't that long ago. It took us a while to find a way down here," he looked over from where he came from.

"Then he's still around here?" Arella asked, and Elizabeth nodded. In reply, she turned towards the exit and shouted, "Jerk!"

". . .Was that really necessary?" The Beedrill eyed her.

"It made me feel better," she shrugged, slowly getting up and wiping off more dust.

"At least he explained everything that happened," Daniel sighed.

"What did happen?"

"Apparently those statues that used to be here came to life and ran off."

". . .That's it?"

"That's all he told me."

"Whatever he said, we better get out of here," Elizabeth stated, "It's starting to get late and we still have to challenge the gym here."

Arella sighed, giving a tiny smile as she did, "You're right, we better get going."

* * *

". . .You're kidding me" Arella sighed as she read the sign, "A ghost gym? Oh Arceus. . ."

"You're scared of ghosts?" Daniel turned to her.

"Do you not remember Sprout Tower and the Ghastly? Ghost's creep the hell out of me. . ." she shuddered, "I'm. . .I'm gonna wait until it's less dark."

"It's still probably going to be dark in there."

Arella opened her mouth to speak, then sighed, "I hate it when your riiiiiiiight."

"The sooner you do it, the sooner you get it over with," Elizabeth pointed out.

"I guess your right. . ." she turned back to Daniel "Your part normal, so ghost moves don't affect you, so I might end up relying on you. And Matthew has Bite so I'll probably use him as well."

"And?" Daniel asked.

". . .And I'll feel really bad if I sweep the entire gym with Fudge because all of the ghosts are going to be part poison," Arella sighed.

He raised an eyebrow, "Arella, can I ask something?"

"Sure."

"You said you just woke up here. How do you know all of this stuff?"

She stared off into space in a while, thinking, before shrugging, "I guess I forgot to tell you that part," she laughed nervously, "I'll get to the explanation later, I think we should focus more on getting you guys and my nerves through this gym in one piece instead of my forgetfulness."

"I'll help you, do not worry," Elizabeth nodded, "If wait you say is true, I will not be helpful in the fighting in this gym, but I'll help you face your fears."

Arella smiled, "Thanks Elizabeth."

"Do not worry, it's our job to help."


	19. Chapter 18: Helpless

"Oh Arceus, what a great way to attract trainers. He should do this as a living," Arella scowled as she, Daniel, and Matthew walked across the pitch black room. She was actually scared to her wits end, but the sarcasm help hide it.

"He does specialize in ghost types. His ghosts probably like this a lot better," Daniel sighed, "Let's just hope we're heading in the right way."

"Yeah. . ." Arella replied, then stiffened up as she felt something breath down her neck..

"Uh. . .guys, do any of you hear that?" she asked nervously.

"Hear what?"

"That-That breathing."

In an instant, Matthew swiped at the air behind his trainer, but a faint chuckle sounded as the breathing moved away, apparently not affected at all by his attempt.

"Heh, don't you know normal attacks don't affect ghost types?"

All three turned towards the source of the voice. The moment right afterwards, candles on either side of them suddenly lit up, illuminating the room in an eerie way. However, the glow from the candles also revealed the source of the voice.

Up the steps was a rather odd looking man with blonde-hair and purple attire, sitting in a rather regal looking chair. Next to him was a pair of haunters, both laughing silently at the challenging trainer.

"And neither does fighting types, I-I know that already," Arella tried to not stammer, but one managed to slip out anyways.

"Smart," he smirked, getting up from the chair, "But I can already tell you're nerves are slowly being withered down to nothing. Don't worry, it happens to almost all the trainers that come here."

"Great, so reassured," Arella grumbled, then let out a yelp as she noticed a Ghastly floating right next to her, which was instantly bitten by Matthew, which made it dissipate.

"It also gives me quite the advantage. Nervous trainers tend to make mistakes, and that helps me a lot. Especially with you and your phobia of ghosts."

She opened her mouth to say something, but the man raised a hand to silence here.

"I have powers, which help me see things others do not. I also see that I'm going to bring the legendary pokemon back. See, a couple years ago, we had a two towers standing magnificently, both with the legendary birds resting on top. But when on of the towers burned, both pokemon flew away and were never seen again.

"But you," he pointed to Arella "You're here to challenge me, right? You will help me reach my goal! I, Morty, accept your-"

The leader was cut off by the sudden ringing noise coming from his pocket, making both humans flinch before he reached into his pocket and sighed.

"I'm sorry, I got to take this," he turned around, putting the PokeGear to his ear.

"What is it Eusine? I'm busy right now" she could barely hear him whisper into the phone, but could hear nonetheless "Do I want to- What? No! _You_ go chase after a stupid blue legendary dog with ribbons coming out of it's ass. I have a gym to run! I don't care if Suicune is majestic and awesome, **stop calling me**."

He turned the PokeGear off before stuffing it into his pocket and turning around, sighing, "Sorry, that was a. . .friend of mine. Now, where were we?"

"We were just about to get to the battle." she replied.

"Ah, thank you," he smiled, "I, Morty, accept your challenge. Go, my Haunters!"

Both Haunters suddenly charged at Matthew and Daniel, but they were both prepared. Daniel sent a strong gust at one of them, knocking him against the wall and making it dissipate. The other Matthew snapped at with his jaws, making that one turn back into gas as well.

"Heh, pretty good," Morty smirked, "But you forgot one."

"What do you-" she froze mid-sentence as her body tensed up, "Oh. . .Arceus."

"Arella? Arella, what's wrong?" Matthew turned around, only to be blasted by a shadowy blob that sent him crashing into the wall.

"Matthew!" Arella screamed, but still she remained in place.

"Arella, why aren't you going to Matthew?" Daniel questioned, only to realize the answer to soon.

"I. . .I-I can't. . .move." Arella bit her lip as her Pidgeotto suddenly noticed the shadowy figure standing right behind her. Not too long after, his wings stopped flapping, and he fell to the floor.

"What did you do to him?" she demanded to Morty, but he only laughed.

"Don't worry, he's only sleeping. I'm sure your Croconaw's fine too," he shrugged, walking down the steps toward Arella, "For now anyways. Too bad you can't do anything to help either of them. Or yourself."

Arella tried to still her quailing body as he continued, "You have 4 pokeballs right there, all probably capable of defeating that Gengar behind you. But, you only saw with your eyes, not your mind, and now you can't move. Not even send out your next pokemon" his face leaned closer to hers "You're _helpless_, and such a shame, too. You seemed so promising. But now, you're journey ends here.

"But before that, why don't we have a little fun?" he smiled, then turned to the Pidgeotto, "I'm sure you always you always wondered what ghosts live off of. Sure, they thrive off of dark thoughts, but their main course is dreams. They prey upon people as they sleep, eating their dreams bit by bit until they have none left," he shook his head, "And a person with no dreams has a life without meaning, so they wither away into nothing, until they become a ghost themselves, trying to find their dreams," he paused.

"W-Why are you telling me this?" she tried to remain calm, but Morty seemed to see right through her.

"Well, I wanted to give you a lovely demonstration of what dream eating really looks like," he smiled again, "And we happen to have a pokemon here who just so happens to be sleeping. _Dreaming_. I'm sure he has dreams a plenty. I wonder what will happen to him as soon as his dreams are taken away."

"You wouldn't."

"I would. I'm a gym leader; it is my **job** to try as hard as possible to keep trainers from advancing, from getting my badge. If you really want to save your precious pokemon, leave. Get out of here, go home, never come here again," he sighed, "And if you don't, well, your Pidgeotto will make a nice addition to my team once he turns. So, what's your choice?"

Arella didn't even have time to think before someone shouted her name, making both humans turn towards the sound.


	20. Chapter 19: Moral Support

"Arella, do **not** listen to him. He's just trying to scare you."

Elizabeth was flying in place right near the entrance, eyes focused on Arella.

Morty shook his head, "So, you sent your Beedrill out ahead of time for moral support? Too bad it can barely even damage my Gengar."

"No, she can't," Arella managed to give a tiny smile "But she can help."

As if on cue, Elizabeth shot a needle from her stinger, making direct contact with one of the pokeballs on her belt. Due to the impact, it fell off her belt and sent out the pokemon containing it.

Fudge.

"Clever, but it won't be good enough. Gengar, Hypnosis!"

The Gengar set its sights on the Graveler, focusing on it until it could send signals towards it. But, Fudge saw it coming and quickly dodged it.

"Fudge, Magnitude! Hurry!" Arella yelled, and he quickly obeyed. The building started shaking violently, making both trainer and Gengar fall over. The roof started to crack, and pieces started falling onto the floor, one landing directly on the Gengar, crushing it.

As soon as the Gengar had been defeated, Arella rushed over to Matthew, kneeling down next to him.

"Oh Arceus, Matthew," She touched him on the arm, "Please still be alive. I know you're still alive," she started tearing up, the recent events making the current moment unbearable. Soon, Elizabeth and Fudge joined her, ignoring the gym leader and too busy looking over their trainer and the Croconaw.

Moments later, Matthew's eyes slowly opened, and his head slowly turned to Arella.

"Did you. . .win?"

"Yes, **we** won," Arella smiled at him, tears still streaking down his face.

". . .I. . .I couldn't do anything."

"Don't talk like that. You survived, and that's all that matters to me," She quickly hugged him, nearly knocking the Croconaw to his side, "I'm so glad you're okay."

Matthew hesitated for a little bit before wrapping his own arms around the trainer.

"Touching, but we still have a matter of business to take care of."

All four quickly turned to face Morty, who was standing right behind them, his face neutral. The room was awkwardly silent for a while before he held out a badge.

"You beat me fair and square, you get the badge," he sighed, "I guess I still got to train a lot more. But seriously, your pokemon are stronger than normal. I think you have a real good shot. And. . .they seem to care for you a lot, which is always good."

". . .Thanks," Arella accepted the badge, nodding in thanks before helping Matthew up, putting Daniel back into his pokeball, and heading towards the exit.

"Elizabeth? I have a question," Arella turned to the Beedrill as they were leaving.

"Yes?"

"When did you get such good aim?"

She laughed nervously "It was a lucky shot. I didn't even know who was in which pokeball, and I was surprised I even hit one of them. But, I had a 2/3 chance of getting a helpful pokemon out, so I figured I might as well take the risk," she shook her head, "But you also still have things to explain."

She blinked, then laughed as well, "Oh yeah. . .Give me a moment. . .First, we need to stop at the pokemon center for the night."

* * *

". . .And you wanted a room for one?"

"Yes please."

"You're all checked in, here you go."

The nurse behind the counter handed Arella a key. Nodding in thanks, she went up the stairs and to her room, opening it and closing it behind her, locking afterwards.

It felt nice to be in a relatively safe, clean room, especially after spending the day battling dancers, exploring a relatively unsafe tower, and being scared out of her wits by the weird-ass gym-trainer.

She opened her badge case and stared at the ghost-shaped badge. It was luck, as Elizabeth had said. Pure luck. If she hadn't kept Elizabeth out, if she hadn't shot Fudge's pokeball off of her belt, if he hadn't dodged that Hypnosis, if he hadn't managed to dish out a Magnitude 10, she may have never gotten the badge.

Daniel may have not even been alive.

She still wasn't even sure if it was a bluff or not. Had he seriously meant to turn her own pokemon into one of his ghosts? She wasn't sure she really wanted to find out.

'But you also still have things to explain,' Elizabeth's words echoed into her mind. She was right. She had put it off long enough.

One by one, she let out her pokemon. Alucard quickly flew to the ceiling, perching as Hana decided to settle down on the bed. Daniel made his perch on the back of a chair as Matthew and Fudge sat next to each other and Elizabeth remained in the air.

"I know, I probably should have told you the first time, but it slipped my mind," Arella smiled nervously. Everyone but Elizabeth and Daniel stared at her, confused.

"The world I'm from. This world, this entire place. . .was a game."

"A. . .game?" Hana blinked.

"A game called Pokemon Silver. There's been many other games exactly like this, except with different regions and different pokemon, but this one in particular was Pokemon Silver."

"So. . .this is all just a game in you're world?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah. . .I'm sure it sounds freaking retarded, but it's true," she sighed, "Thing is. . .the last night in my world. . .I specifically put that game under my pillow right before I went to bed."

"Could it be how you got here?" Alucard suggested.

"Could be that, could just be a freak coincidence. Could be something else entirely," she shook her head, "I'll have to ask later."

"Ask who?"

She remained silent, then sighed again, "I know Alucard and Hana won't know, but do you guys remember the little girl dressed as a Pikachu before the union cave?"

"Yeah, you nearly lost us chasing her through the cave," Matthew nodded.

"She's been appearing in my dreams now. . .telling me that she summoned me here and that I have an important role to fulfill and that she was once a pokemon," she plopped down on another chair, letting out an exasperated sigh, "I'm just not sure what to make of it."

"If she keeps appearing in your dreams, then sleep when you can," Daniel shrugged, "If you sleep as much as possible, you'll spend more time with her and maybe you can get the answers out of her."

She smiled, standing back up, "I guess you're right. I've already had enough of today anyways," this time she plopped onto the bed, sending Hana flying up before she floated back down, "Make yourselves comfortable then, I'm gonna head to bed," she slipped under the covers, making sure not to knocking Hana off the bed before turning off the already turned on lamp, putting the room into pitch darkness.


	21. Chapter 20: Interruptions

"What a pleasant surprise! You're back already," Ellen smiled as Arella slowly sat up in the completely white void, rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah, and you have some questions to answer," she sighed.

"About whaaaaat?" she asked innocently, rocking back and forth on her heels.

"About how the hell I got here."

"I already told you, I redeemed some brownie points," she smiled cheerfully.

"But why is it the night I put the game containing this same exact universe under my pillow is the night I get transported over to this world?"

"Uhhh. . .not really sure," she scratched her head, "I think he said something about you being the easiest to transport to this world because you were the closest to the source of the universe and that you could easily replace the person you did because your names were so similar," she shrugged.

"'He'? My name?" she buried her head in her hands, groaned in frustration before looking back up at Ellen, "Why must you never make **sense**?"

"Because it would take me half of your life-time to explain everything? Besides, it takes a lot less time when you figure out things yourself."

"At least tell me what my name has to do with it and who the hell 'he' is."

"Well, 'he' if my super-awesome bestest of friend Celebi," she beamed, "He's such a cool person and does me all these favors and he's so awesome and-"

Arella coughed.

"Right, ummm. . .I think he said it was something about how names are easier to replace if their similar, and you and the guy's name are super similar in names."

"What was his name then?"

"Gold."

". . .They're nothing alike."

"Uh-uh, Celebi told me that you're name means 'Golden' in Swedish or Spanish or whatever he said."

"So, just because I happened to have a copy of Pokemon Silver under my pillow and a name that means 'golden' in some language, I ended up here."

". . .Yeah, that's pretty much it," she shrugged.

"I have the worst luck," she sighed.

"Well, you met you Matthew, didn't you?"

Arella eyed the Pikachu, "How do you know his name?"

"Well duh, I watch over you and stuff. Think of me as your guardian angel."

". . .I feel so safe now," she rolled her eyes.

"Well you survived the explosion at the burned tower, didn't you?" Ellen grumbled, folding her arms before her eyes lit up, "Oh, that reminds me! Red told me to tell you that Silver-"

* * *

Arella's eyes instantly flashed open, her brain awakening as well just in time for her ears the catch the last rumbled of distant thunder. Distant, but apparently it was loud enough to wake her.

It was like the thunder was right on cue, not letting the Pikachu tell her what her trainer wanted to tell her about Silver. What [b]did[/b] she know about Silver anyways? It was kind of hard to imagine, but she figured it was important. Hell, she wouldn't mind any information about him.

. . .Did she really just think that?

"Oh Arceus. . ." she buried her hands in her face. She did [b]not[/b] just think that. . .did she?

She heard another rumbling. But instead of coming from the distant thunder storm outside, it came from the ceiling. She looked up only to see Alucard staring back down at her as his stomach apparently rumbled again. Trying not to giggle so she didn't disturb the rest of the sleeping pokemon, she gestured to the door. The Crobat nodded, and she slowly got out of bed, careful not to knock Hana off as she did as Alucard flew down from his perch, following her out the door after she wrote a note to the rest of her pokemon explaining where she and the bat were.

She never quite understood how the pokemon centers managed to heal pokemon to full health for free, offer rooms for free, and [i]still[/i] manage to offer complimentary breakfast, although she wasn't complaining. It also amazed her how they managed to stay open 24/7 and start serving breakfast at 3 in the morning for the travelers that wanted a head-start on the sun. Again, convenient, but again, How?

She was amazed to see how many people were up at this hour when she walked into the breakfast room. The sudden buzz of movement and conversation hurt her ears a little, being used to the quiet of her room, but soon got used to it as she grabbed breakfast for herself and the Crobat following her.

A quick scan of the room drew her to the conclusion that all of the tables had at least one occupant, making grabbing a table for herself not an option. Sighing, she scanned the room again to check the occupants. A couple hikers, a young couple, some more hikers, a-

Her eyes did a double take, and she sighed in relief when she did. There was a man maybe a good 10 years older than her sitting at a table near the edge of the room, a Dragonite by him. His bed-attacked hair and its color almost made him look like Silver, but his face was a lot older than his, and she was pretty sure the jerk hadn't magically pulled a Dragonite out of his ass since the incident at the Burned Tower.

Not coming up with a better option, she sighed again and slowly approached the man before asking, "Uh. . .do you mind if I sit here?"

He looked up at the trainer before smiling, "Not at all."

She gave a tiny nod back in thanks, sitting down across from him before taking another bite of food, blinking to try to keep her droopy eyes open.

". . .You okay?" she looked up to see the man staring at her, "You look like you're about to fall asleep any second."

"The thunder storm woke me up, and my Crobat was hungry," she gestured to Alucard, who was near devouring his breakfast, "So instead of back in bed trying to get my precious sleep back, I'm down here, not that I mind too much," she smiled a little bit, "Loosing a little sleep is better than having a starving pokemon."

He smiled, "You must really love your pokemon."

"Oh, definitely. Couldn't ask for any better pokemon," she looked over at Alucard, smiling a little more.

"Where are you heading then?"

"Uuumm. . ." she glanced over at a map hanging on the wall before turning back to the man, "Olivine apparently. Going to get the next badge."

"Already beat Morty then?"

"Ugh, don't remind me of him."

He laughed, "He's a very skilled trainer, so I'm not surprised you had trouble with him."

"That's an understatement," she grumbled, then her expression went neutral again, "What about you?"

"I'm going over to the Lake of Rage, checking out that thunder storm that woke you up," he nodded, "I heard there's been some suspicious activity out there, so I'm going to check that out as well."

"Well, I better head back to the room and make sure the rest of my pokemon aren't doing anything stupid," she stood up from the chair, picking up her plate as she did, "Good luck."

"You too," he nodded, watching her and the Crobat leave, before looking down at his own breakfast, sighing again.

"Arceus Damn it Red, what **do** you have planned for the poor boy?"


	22. Chapter 21: Risk Taking

He wasn't entirely sure what he was doing, or even _why_ he was doing it, but he was tired of being utterly confused.

He wanted answers.

Silver checked his PokeGear again, sighing. The dogs really liked to jump around from place to place. Of course, after being turned into stone for so long, he didn't entirely blame them, but it still annoyed him. It also didn't help that he was only looking for one of them.

"Master, why are we still waiting here?" his Ghastly asked, impatient, "We should be training, getting strong so we can finally defeat that trainer you keep talking about."

"Shut up, Ghastly," He glared at the floating ball of gas before checking his pokegear again.

He almost missed it, but he felt the temperature suddenly go up, as if he was fairly close to a fire. Looking up, he saw the third legendary dog, running in their direction, and fairly fast.

"Ghastly, Mean Look! Now!"

Quickly, he obeyed as the dog passed instantly freezing him. As he walked up to the dog, the intensity of the heat got worse, almost unbearable, but it didn't matter right now. He just needed the answers.

"What is it, boy? You realize I could kill that Ghastly of yours on whim?" Entei asked as Silver walked up to him, obviously very annoyed.

"Yes, but it's a risk I'm willing to take," he sighed, "Besides, I just want to ask you some things. After we're done, you can go about your prancey-hopping-around-the-map-like-there's-no-tomorrow.

"Well, what do you want then?" he snapped, "I don't have all day."

"Remember the girl that set you free?"

"Ah, yes, the girl trapped in a boy's body. It's hard to forget something like that. What about it?"

"How the hell did you even know she's a girl for starters?"

Entei laughed, "Boy, I am a** legendary**. I can see things that regular humans and pokemon can not, and I can sense things. I sensed the vibes of both genders coming from her, and since it was a boy I was seeing, I came to the conclusion that 'he' was a girl."

"Then what did you mean by 'long journey'? Johto isn't very big."

"It isn't indeed," he shook his head, "But I cannot tell you specifics. All I can say is that she will not be here for long. Soon, she will be sucked into another world, and alternate universe. Unless, of course, her journey through Johto is abruptly stopped by the laws, she will have an even longer journey a head of her, through a different universe."

"The. . .laws?"

"Outsiders that come to this world are shunned upon by Arceus himself, so he set up laws that often affect outsiders, but mainly their pokemon. See unlike your pokemon, her pokemon don't faint, they _die_."

Silver remained silent .

"He enforced the laws on outsiders recently due to the startling number of people coming in that aren't from this world, and that girl was included," He glared at Silver, "Can I go yet, boy?"

"Ghastly, let him go."

Again, he obeyed, the dog's body un-stiffening before he turned to face the boy.

"I wouldn't suggest trying that again, boy, especially on Raikou and Suicune. They don't have as much patience for humans as I do," and with that, he sprinted off, leaving the trainer behind as he and the Ghastly looked on.

* * *

"Did we really have to leave this early?"

"Well, almost all of you were awake, so we might as well keep going."

Daniel sighed again as him, Arella, and Matthew walked along the beginnings of Route 39, the sun just barely peaking over the distant mountains. After a while of silence, he turned back to his trainer.

"Where are we going again?"

"Olivine," she turned to Matthew, "Which means we'll see the ocean soon."

Matthew smiled back, but then his expression suddenly went stern as he seemed to notice something. Arella opened her mouth to ask, but no sound came out as she noticed what her starter was looking at.

Not far from them was a rather simple grave with a wood cross jutting from it, something shiny dangling off one of the edges. In front of it was a rather shady looking man, scanning the area before approaching the grave, then taking the shiny thing off of it and darting off.

"Shit! Daniel, go after him!" Arella called, and the Pidgeotto instantly obeyed, flying at top speed at the man and bowling him over, knocking him to the ground.

"And he said grave robbing would be easy," she heard the man grumble as Arella approached him before he took out a pokeball and threw it, "Go Meowth! Cover my escape."

A Meowth popped out the ball, instantly going at Arella instead of her pokemon, but wasn't fast enough. Matthew stepped in front of his trainer, batting the Meowth to the side, instantly making it faint.

At the sight of this, the man instantly fled, passing right by Arella and dropping the shiny thing as he did, apparently. She walked over as Daniel flew back, picking it up and examining it.

A Locket, apparently valuable in sentimental as well as material value by the way it was hanging off a grave. She smiled, walking back to the grave and hanging it on the edge again, then nearly choked as she saw the name carved on it:

Jamie the Typhlosion.

Arella couldn't help but smile as a little as she saw the name, patting the grave as she whispered "I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this, but Shannon really cared for you."

"Arella, are you okay?"

She turned, but instead of seeing the usual Croconaw, she saw a towering Feraligatr standing behind her.

"Yes, I'm fine," she nodded, getting up as she did, "More importantly, you evolved."

Without warning, Matthew picked her up, placing her on his shoulder before smiling, "And I'll make sure nothing tries to harm you ever again."

"Thank you," she gave a bright smile directed towards him before pointing in the direction they were walking before "Now to Olivine!"


	23. Chapter 22: One Plan or Another

"There it is. The ocean."

Both trainer and pokemon remained silent for a while, staring off into the distant blue that reflected the morning sun. The tranquility, however was quickly interrupted.

"Looks like your personal bodyguard is now big enough to actually be your personal body guard."

All three looked towards the source of the voice only to see Silver standing there, looking up at the trainer.

"What do you want?" she eyed him.

"I was just here for the badge, but the gym leader's gone," he sighed, "Apparently she's taking care of some sick pokemon or whatever in the Lighthouse."

"And you're not even going to try to help her?"

"What the hell should I? It isn't my pokemon, so it isn't my responsibility." Silver crossed his arms, "I could care less if a pokemon is sick anyways. If they can't fight, they're as good as dead."

Arella nudged Matthew, and he nodded, letting her down to the ground. She stormed over to Silver, and punched him, clean in the kisser.

"You know what? That felt kinda good," Arella smiled at him, as he held his cheek, staring at her in shock, "And maybe it'll jar your brain a little so you'll realize pokemon aren't **things**," she turned back to Matthew and Daniel, gestured towards the Lighthouse with her head, "Come on, we better check it out."

Silver could only watched as the trainer and her pokemon left towards the lighthouse as his other hand gripped into a fist.

* * *

"You didn't have to hit him, or yell at him," Daniel sighed.

"I know, but he deserved it," Arella grumbled as the elevator slowly went up, passing floor by floor on the way to the top "Plus it's affecting his pokemon. I saw his Bayleef back in Azalea, and I saw it as a Chikorita near Cherrygrove. The poor Chikorita didn't even want to fight back then, but in Azalea it was so. . .manipulative. _Violent_."

"And pokemon usually reflect how the trainer is raising them. She has a point Daniel," Matthew nodded.

"Yes, but you didn't have to **hit** him."

"I know," she sighed as well, "I guess I'll apologize to him next time I see him."

The elevator suddenly stopped, making a high-pitched noise as the door opened. Both trainer and pokemon set foot into what seemed to be the top of the Lighthouse. The walls surrounding them were made of glass, letting in the morning sun.

In the middle of the room was an Ampharos lying down and a woman kneeling next to it, holding a wash-cloth to its forehead and whispering to it. When Arella walked closer, the woman looked up, then gave her a tiny smile.

"Hello," she nodded, "Were you looking for a gym battle?"

"Uh. . .no," Arella shook her head, "I heard you were taking care of sick pokemon up here and. . .uh. . .is it doing okay?"

The smile faded, and she looked back down at the Ampharos, flipping the washcloth over before speaking, "No, poor Amphy is doing really badly. Her fever's getting worse, and I don't know how much longer she'll be able to light the lighthouse."

"She **lights **the entire lighthouse?"

"Yes. . ." she nodded again, "She helps keep the ships the dock here safe by giving them light during the blackest of nights, but now. . ." she looked back up at Arella, "You're a trainer right?"

"Uh. . .yeah. . ."

"There's a pharmacy over at the island Cianwood across the ocean, and they should have medicine strong enough to cure Amphy. I would go, but. . ." she glanced at the sickly Ampharos again.

"Don't worry, I'll go," Arella nodded, handing her a slip of paper, "Call me when she starts getting really bad, and I'll try to hurry up."

"Thank you," she smiled, and watched as the trainer and her pokemon went back into the elevator.

* * *

Left, middle, right, middle, left, middle, then right again. There was a door right in front of him, but all three of them were too. There weren't any boxes or tables or anything to hide behind, just the chair he was sitting in.

Proton grumbled, his eye's sweeping back and forth at the three other rocket admins that stood before him, all of them not looking very pleased.

"I say we fire him. No one in Team Rocket should loose to a little kid," the one of the left, Arianna as everyone called her, stated sharply, making Proton cringe a little.

"And so I don't get in trouble for dragging him into my bed chambers," the one on the right said, perfectly mocking Arianna.

"Petrel!" she glared at him, but he only grinned.

The middle one raised his hand, and the other two admins bit their lip, looking the other way.

"One of out scientists contacted us recently about the experiment in Mahogany, and they're ready to receive us for inspection," he glanced at Arianna, then Petrel, "Would it be to hard to ask that you both go, and the next time you report to me that both of you be **alive**?"

"No sir," they both said quietly.

"Good. You are both dismissed."

Both admins turned around, Arianna shooting another quick glare at Petrel before the exited the room, closing the door behind them.

"Proton," he stared directly at the young admin, "I want you to tell me _exactly_ what happened in the Slowpoke Well."

He sighed, taking off his cap and slicking his hair back, "Do I really have to, Archer?"

Archer nodded slightly, and Proton sighed again, putting his cap back on, "We were doing business as usual today when suddenly the grunts that are with me go out one by one, and some 10-year old kid comes up, demanding I release the Slowpokes. I refuse, we battle, he whoops my ass, so I get mad and cut the tail of the Slowpoke behind me. He flips out, suddenly goes berserk and jumps on me, knocking me to the ground before he starts freaking choking me," he shook his head, "I couldn't even get the kid off he was so determined to kill me. The only reason I'm alive is that his own pokemon managed to pry him off of me."

He remained silent, so Proton continued on, "Look Unc- **Archer**, I'm a big boy now. I don't need you to start organizing grand schemes of revenge for me. I can do it myself."

"I wasn't thinking about that actually," he stated, grabbing a chair from the corner of the room and moving it in front of Proton, "If this kid destroyed the Slowpoke business down in Azalea, he could do the same exact thing with the Gyarados business up in the Lake of Rage."

"And then our master plan in Goldenrod," the younger admin finished.

"Exactly. If he shows up again at the Lake of Rage, then we'll know for sure he'll go after us at Goldenrod," he sat down, "So we need to prepare for him. Go over it again, tell me anything you rememeber about him, any possible weakness, anything that can help us take him down when he comes for us."

Proton grinned, "Gladly."


	24. Chapter 23: Situations

The sun was now suspended directly in the sky, blazing Johto with it's relentless heat. The sea breeze, however, cooled things remarkably, making it quite the pleasant day. The ocean was also calm, making the trip from Olivine to Cianwood rather easy.

Matthew was swimming through the calm waves, Arella sitting on his back and Hana clinging on to Arella's shoulder to prevent from being blown away. All three of them remained quiet except for the Feraligatr's breathing as he swam through the calm ocean, taking in the scenic view of the endless ocean.

She admitted, Arella had never really been this far in the ocean before. Granted, she had lived quite close to the ocean all her life, but she never really went _in_ it. The beach was always a hassle to her, and getting the sand out of everywhere was especially a pain.

Arella snapped out of her remiss as soon as she felt one of Hana's 'arms' poking her.

"Hey Arella? When are we gonna get there?" she asked curiously.

Arella dug out her PokeGear, checking it before putting it back, "We're about half-way there."

Almost if on cue, a large shadow under the water went racing by them, turning the clear water a murky black for a split second.

"W-What was that?" Hana clung on to Arella tighter as she looked around.

"Whatever it was," Matthew sighed as he stopped, "It was big, but it didn't seem to interested in us."

Arella sighed, smiling as she shook her head, "This is completely ironic. . ."

"What is?"

"Back in my world, this place didn't seem as threatening. All the pokemon were little sprites, pokemon never died, and it was all displayed on a little screen that was maybe 6 inches in diameter," she looked out the ocean, "Now it's a complete world, it's real, and. . .it's scary."

"Well, silly head," Hana smiled, "That's why you have us! So we can protect you!"

"Says the one who was just freaked out by the shadow."

"Well _excuse_ me for just trying to help."

Arella patted her on her top cotton puff, "I was kidding. Really, though. . .thanks" she turned back to Matthew, "Let's keep going. Cianwood is still a long way's off."

* * *

Cianwood was a lot quieter than she honestly expected. Except for the gentle rolling of waves and the occasional chatter of residents passing by each other, it was near dead silent on the tiny island.

She didn't have time to waste, though. Both pokemon back in their pokeballs, she brickly walked over to the pharmacy building, entering it.

The building was rather small, but cozy. The was a counter at the back and shelves lined every wall, filled with various herbs, spices, and many things she didn't even recognize. Behind the counter was a middle-aged man with graying-hair, smiling at Arella as she walked in.

"Hello, hello. Can I help you with anything?" he asked as she walked over to the counter.

"Umm. . .the Lighthouse pokemon. . ." she trailed off.

The old man remained silent, the nodded, understanding what Arella didn't say.

"How bad is it?" he asked.

"Really bad. Jasmine says she's not sure how much longer she'll last."

The man's gaze glanced around, tapping the counter with his fingernails as he did, before finally kneeling down behind the counter. After a couple moments, he stoop back up, paper bag in hand.

"Normally this is too strong to give to a pokemon," he put the bag on the counter, "But if she's really that sick, I'll make an exception."

"Thank you," she nodded in thanks, taking the paper bag from the counter and walking out. Right as she did, though, her PokeGear started ringing. Sighing, she answered it.

"H-hello?" a voiced on the other side answered.

"Jasmine, is that you?"

"Yeah, look. . .a. . .a doctor just came by," she could hear the gym leader gulp, "He says if I don't get her the medicine soon, she won't make it through the night."

"Wha- What do you mean by that?"

"I mean she won't be able to light the lighthouse the entire night."

"Can she just. . .I don't know. . .take a break tonight or something?"

"The sailors depend on Amphy, she can't just take a break. I've already tried calling all of the trainers with back-up Ampharoses, and they all say they won't be able to make it on time."

Arella sighed, "Look just. . .just take care of her as much as you can. I'll call you back when I get close,"

"Thank you," and Jasmine hung up. As soon as she did, the trainer cursed under her breath. It was already well past noon, and she had left Olivine when the sun had barely risen over the horizon. There was no way in hell she would make it there in time if she surfed back.

The Ampharos would die if she didn't think of something quick.


	25. Chapter 24: Hope and Disaster

What else could she do? What else could she use to get back to Olivine quick enough? All she could think of was surfing.

She looked up, squinting at the sun. It was early afternoon now. She definitely wouldn't make it back in time if she surfed.

Then she saw the gym, gleaming in the sun that was slowly but surely making it's way to the horizon. The sky. . .the gym. . .sky. . .gym.

Shit, why didn't she think of that earlier?

She ran over to the gym, stopping short to make sure she didn't bowl over the woman standing in front of it.

"Quick. Does this gym's badge allow me to fly and what type is it?"

The woman hesitated, seemingly shocked by her sudden appearance before answering, "Uh. . .yes. . ."

Jackpot.

". . .And the type's fighting," she continued.

As soon as she was done talking, Arella ran into the gym. Moments later, the building shook a little as a crack was heard inside. Another shake, and a Poliwrath went flying out the roof, making a hole in the roof as it did.

Another couple moments, and Arella was out again with a new badge in her hand and a newly evolved Daniel at her side.

"You ready to fly then?" the trainer asked, and Daniel smiled.

"Ready when you are."

Arella nodded, climbing on to his back. Before anyone watching could blink an eye, the Pidgeot took off into the sky, heading towards the Olivine Lighthouse.

* * *

Over in Olivine, the sun was starting to set, painting the clear ocean various shades of red, orange, and yellow. Usually, this was sight to behold for the gym leader, but today wasn't a usual day.

Jasmine flipped over the cold washcloth on Amphy's head, whispering into her ear as she did. She tried her best to tell her that it would be over soon, but even she wasn't sure herself if the Ampharos would pull through.

Why did she even send that random trainer off to get the medicine for Amphy. She didn't even know herself, but. . .for some reason, she felt like she _wanted_ to trust him. He had come up to check on the sick pokemon, so she had assumed that she could trust him to bring back the medicine.

But there was the voice in her mind, that little voice in her head that doubted her decision. That kept telling her that trusting the boy was a bad idea. That he would never make it back in time. That he probably didn't even care about Amphy.

She shook her head. No, she had to stay positive. If Amphy had held on for this long, she could hold on for a little longer.

Her head snapped as she heard the elevator announce it's arrival with a long ring. Moments later, the doors slid open, and the trainer ran in and up to the gym leader, paper bag in hand as his Pidgeot followed close behind.

"Here. . .sorry it took so long," he said, slightly panting. Jasmine could only stare at him before taking the bag. As quickly as she could, she took the medicine out of the bag, slowly pouring the liquid it contained into the Ampharos's mouth, then put a hand to her forehead.

". . .She's getting better already," she smiled, then turned back to the trainer, "Thank you. . .uh. . ."

"Arella," he nodded, "Will she make it through the night then?"

"Most definitely, though I'm staying to make sure," she nodded, ". . .I'll go back to the gym tomorrow morning, so we can fight then."

"Just as long as the Ampharos is better, I'm happy," he smiled, "Take as long as you need."

She could only stare as trainer and pokemon walked back to the elevator. And as the elevator doors closed, she couldn't help but feel a little pang in her heart.

* * *

Morning couldn't come quick enough for Arella, as she had almost not slept the entire night. She didn't know why she was so excited, it was any other gym battle that she had yet. But yet. . .it was like she was excited to see the gym leader.

She entered the gym on the north side of town, and was surprised that it was relatively empty. All the other gyms she had gone through before had many trainers before the actual gym leader, but this one was completely empty, save for Jasmine, who was standing at the back.

"I said you could come in the morning, but I didn't expect you to come this early," Jasmine smiled as Arella walked up.

"What can I say? I'm excited," she smiled back.

"That's good," she nodded, "I. . .want to thank you again for saving Amphy's life. . .for helping her keep the sailors safe," the gym leader paused, "But I'm not going to go easy on you," she chucked the pokeball in her hand to the ground in front of her, and a Steelix came out, rising to it's full height and roaring.

"I would hope not. Go Fudge!" she sent out the Graveler, who eyed the giant metal snake warily.

The snake started screeching, making both trainers plug their ears, but only slightly jarring Fudge as he fought to stay focused. Seeing the opportunity, he smashed his fail onto the rock, but he had already rolled away and smacked into the wall, causing the floor to shake and knocking the snake off-balance.

"One more Magnitude Fudge!" Arella yelled, and Fudge quickly obeyed, shaking the snake even further and causing it to crash to the ground.

"Well. . .it looks like you won," Jasmine smiled timidly.

"Hear that, Fudge? We did it!" the trainer quickly ran up to Fudge, hugging him. Unfortunately, Arella did not register the gym leader's sudden gasp until a sickening crack filled the room, and the Graveler's body slowly fell to the floor, revealing the still conscious Steelix behind him.

". . .Fudge? Fudge, answer me," she kneeled next to him, shaking his body gently, "Come on Fudge, wake up. It's still alive, we still need to win. . ."

She looked up at Jasmine, who's face was dead white as she realized what the Graveler's own trainer failed to realize yet.

"Thank. . .you. For. . .For. . .ev. . . ery. . .thing."

She looked down at the sudden unfamiliar voice, but only met Fudge's closed eyes and his slump body.

"Fudge, was. . .that you?" her eyes' widened as her mind grew frantic, "Come on Fudge, speak to me! You have to wake up!" she threw herself onto his body, tears forming in her eyes, "Please. . .Please. . .just. . .w-wake up."


	26. Chapter 25: Aftermath

"You don't remember anything, do you?"

Arella's glazed-over eyes suddenly snapped to life, looking up at the Pidgeot that was standing next to her. She looked in front of her, and her chest dropped again as she saw the grave of her beloved Fudge.

"What. . .happened?" Arella slowly turned back to Daniel, and he sighed.

"You won for starters," he gestured to her hand, which she quickly opened, revealing a badge.

He continued, "After that. . .Matthew wouldn't say anything else."

". . .Where is Matthew?"

The Pidgeot looked up, and Arella followed his gaze to see the Feraligatr, the rest of his party standing around him as he talked.

"He volunteered to break the news to everyone. . ."

Arella looked back at the badge in her hand, gleaming in the mid-morning sun, before shaking her head.

"This isn't worth it."

Daniel looked back down at Arella.

"This badge, all of the badges, they weren't or will ever be worth his death." She took a deep breath, trying not to break down into tears "What are they even for? To prove that I'm a good trainer? To prove that I'm the best? They're worthless. . .it's all worthless. . ." she bit her lip, "I should have just stayed home. . ."

"And what?"

Arella's attention snapped back to Daniel, surprised at the harshness as his tone.

"And let Matthew rot away in that lab where you got him? Let Elizabeth get eaten by those Pidgies? Let Fudge stay in that cave, too scared to go outside for the rest of his life? Let Hana stay useless forever? Would you really wish that upon them all?"

She looked back at the rest of her party. Alucard was now comforting a crying Hana, while Elizabeth only looked down, her arms drooping.

"Are you really going to let Fudge's death be in vain?" he shook his head "I don't think he would have wanted you to just drop everything and stop just because he died. He would have wanted you to go forward, just like everyone else."

He sighed, "Just think about it. Without you, Team Rocket would still be in the Slowpoke Well, cutting off the tails of those slowpokes. Without you, Hana would have never met Alucard. Without you. . ." he paused, stealing a glance at the Beedrill, "I wouldn't have met Elizabeth," he shook his head, smiling, "Besides, getting your first death on your 6th gym leader battle is pretty good in my book."

Without warning, Arella hugged him, nearly knocking the bird over as she did, and digging her face into his chest feathers.

"Thank you Daniel. . ."

He smiled again, "No problem."

* * *

The road to Mahogany was soaked as the grey clouds covering the sun let down their weight onto the earth, also soaking the people traveling through. Arella was one of them as she slowly walked along the road, Matthew doing the same next to her as Elizabeth flew on the other side and Hana clung onto her shoulder, all four of them silent, until Matthew spoke up.

"Arella? Can I ask you something?"

Arella, puzzled, looked over at him, ". . .Sure?"

"Why do you have 6 pokeballs on your belt?"

Arella dodged Matthew's gaze, "N-no reason."

". . .You already replaced Fudge, didn't you?"

"I added someone else to the team, okay? I didn't _replace_ him."

Matthew shook his head, "You're just like Silver."

Arella could only gawk as Matthew walked fast, leaving her and the other two pokemon behind.

"Well that was rude of him," Hana frowned.

"He's probably still grieving over Fudge," Elizabeth sighed, "They were pretty much best friends," she shook her head, "But that doesn't give him the right to call you a bad trainer."

Arella remained silent, biting her lip before speaking up.

". . .Maybe I am as bad as Silver."

"Arella. . ."

"I completely forgot Steel was super-effective against Rock. . .And. . .I should have switched him out when that Steelix use screech and-"

"Hindsight is 20/20," Elizabeth stated, cutting Arella off, "It's not your fault, nor will it ever be. Matthew is simply being immature in taking out his grief on you. Besides, 6 bodies is almost always better than 5," she gave a reassuring smile to Arella.

She sighed, "I. . .I hope your right."


	27. Chapter 26: Storm Front

It wasn't much longer until the female trio had reached the quiet town of Mahogany, located near the upper regions of Kanto. The rain storm, however, increased in intensity as they neared it, making the trip seem to take a whole lot longer.

To her surprise, Matthew was waiting for her at the border of the small town. From the looks of it, he didn't exactly want to apologize, but he was obviously worried about something.

"Took you guys long enough," he commented as the soaked trainer and pokemon walked up to him.

"Well _excuse_ me for not being water type," Hana grumbled under her breath.

Matthew disregarded the comment, looking back towards the town.

"Look."

All three of them followed Matthew's gaze to a man standing outside of a building in the middle of the town. Not a couple seconds later, he stepped to the side, letting a black-clad man run out of the building behind him and letting another one run in.

"No way. . ." Arella gasped.

"Team Rocket?" Elizabeth looked back over at Matthew, "What are they doing here?"

"I don't know, and I can't think of why, but they've been entering and leaving that building since I got here. I don't know for what, but I think it'd be in our best interests to find out."

Arella bit her lip, "Yeah. . .we probably should check it out"

~

The torrential downpour only got worse as the group headed north of Mahogany, strong head-winds only slowing their progress.

Arella trudged along the muddy road, trying to keep her balance as she was blasted by the wind, her body twitching slightly in surprise every time she saw the lightning and heard the thunder.

Hana had opted to retreat inside of her pokeball a while ago, not wanting to be completely blown away by the strong gusts. Instead, Elizabeth took her place, trying to hold on as best as she could to her trainer's shoulders with the base of her stingers, Arella's back taking most of the wind and rain for her. Arella didn't mind though, for when she caught the injured Weedle, or any of her pokemon, she vowed to take care of them, and this went along with it.

Matthew walked alongside him, not seemingly fazed at all by the heavy rain. The heavy winds, however, seemed to be doing a number on him as well.

"From the way the rain keeps getting worse as we go north, I think the storm is centered around whatever's up there," Elizabeth commented, though she nearly had to yell because the rain, wind, and thunder deafened any sound that tried to reach the trio's ears.

"I'm just hoping it doesn't get any worse than this," Arella grumbled, then her gaze shifted as something appeared in the distance, covered by the downpour until they got close enough.

". . .Matthew? Do you see that?"

The massive Feraligatr peered ahead, before nodding .

"Yeah, there's a road-block ahead," he sighed, "Manned by Team Rocket."

As they got closer, Arella found his statement to be quite true. Two men in black uniforms with giant red 'R's on their chest covered the only way through the road-block, even through the complete down-pour.

Finally, one noticed them heading towards their make-shift obstacle, alerting the other grunt before yelling, "Hey! If you want to get through, you're going to have to pay a thousand poke fine!"

"A _thousand_ poke?" the trainer's jaw dropped open, "What the hell do I need to pay that outrageous fine for?"

"You know, tourism fees," the other grunt grinned, "Seeing the Gyaradoses at the Lake of Rage is a huge fad right now."

"Sure, because the road is completely packed with people," she rolled her eyes, her tone of voice leaking sarcasm.

All three trainers turned when a sudden low, hostile growl manage to surface over the noise of the rain and the wind, and Arella was completely surprised to find the source of the growl was her own Feraligatr, giving a glare so intense to the grunt that it seemed to make them shrink.

"B-but," the first grunt stammered, "We. . .uh. . .do have a-a special today for trainers with. . .with Feraligatrs who. . .um. . .g-get in for free."

Without another word, both grunts stepped aside, letting both trainer and pokemon through. Matthew however, kept his glare on the two at all times before her finally turned back towards the road.

". . .You've never growled at anyone. . .Not even Silver," Arella blinked.

"Some things change," Matthew replied flatly, before walking a little faster. Arella looked back at Elizabeth, who nodded. She turned back around and rushed after the Feraligatr.

* * *

Thankfully, the wind had died down as they reached the lake, but somehow the rain got even worse. Arella felt like she was being pelted by miniature lakes everyone time a drop hit, and it hurt. A lot.

Thankfully, the trio somehow had made it to the lake that the Team Rocket grunts from earlier had mentioned, and it seemed that Elizabeth was right. Lightning rained down from the clouds around the lake as thunder rang through the air, and it seemed the darkest clouds of the storm were had settled here.

In the middle of the lake, however, was probably the main attraction. Right in the middle was a Red Gyarados. Not a blue like they usually were, but red, and it seemed that it's scale color seemed to match it's anger level quite well.

"I think this storm has something to do with that Gyarados," Elizabeth stated as she peaked over her trainer's shoulders.

"It does."

All three of them turned to meet an old man standing near them, but staring out at the lake instead of looking at them.

"The Lake of Rage is normally quite peaceful, but ever since the Magikarps started all evolving for no reason, there has been a constant storm here," he shook his head, "It probably has something to do with the sudden appearance of Team Rocket," he turned to the trainer behind him, "The Red Gyarados seems to be leading the rampage, and may be causing the storm too."

Arella nodded in understanding, grabbing a pokeball from her belt.

"With the lightning, I don't think it would be the best idea to use Daniel," Matthew stated, as if he had read her mind.

"Yes, but that means the water wouldn't be any safer," Arella turned to Matthew, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

Matthew only remained silent, watching skeptically as Arella let out Daniel.

"Look, Daniel," Arella sighed as the Pidgeot turned to her, "I know there's lightning, but it's usually attracted to the tallest thing, so try to stay under the Gyarados."

Daniel nodded, then took flight, heading straight at the Leviathan-like creature, both trainer and the two pokemon looking on.

"Be safe," Elizabeth muttered as the bird continued to fly.


	28. Chapter 27: Second Chance

Past the thunder and lightning, the Gyarados' roar somehow made it to the trainer standing on shore as its tail flailed back and forth, making the water raise up several feet on the silhouette of where it hit.

It, however, did not even see the Pidgeot coming until it had already made his first strike along the sea monster's belly, making it roar again and sway back and forth. In response, the sea monster continually tried to shoot high-pressured bursts of water at the large bird, but failed every time.

The Pidgeot seemed to grin as the Gyarados let out another roar, and promptly tried to smash him with its tail. He was faster than the leviathan-like creature, however, and quickly flew out of the way.

"That Gyarados isn't even giving him a chance anymore. . ." Arella bit her lip as she watched from on shore, Elizabeth and Matthew next to her.

"It must be angry on the brink of insanity if he's managing to move that fast with that giant gash on his stomach," Matthew sighed, "But the again, that's probably just a scratch when you're 20 feet long."

"I think Daniel will find a way to get him eventually."

Both Arella and Matthew turned to the Beedrill.

"I know him, he's clever and resourceful," Elizabeth nodded, "He's just trying to find another opening right now."

As if on cue, lightning struck again, hitting the giant sea-monster. Its body stiffen up in response, starting to lean to the side as if it was about to fall over, but it manage to position himself again to make sure he didn't.

Daniel readied himself for another attack, but the Gyarados had already seemed to calm down, simply too exhausted to continued attacking.

Arella opened her mouth to say something, but stopped the sound from coming out when Matthew and Elizabeth both cringed, apparently bothered by something. From the distance, Daniel seemed to be facing the same problem.

"There's some kind of high-pitched noise. . .I think it's a radio signal," Matthew said as he covered both ears with his palm. Elizabeth seemed less bothered by it then the Feraligatr, but also lacked visible ears to begin with.

The Gyarados suddenly roared again, thrown into a rage again by the sudden radio signal that filled the air, and hit the distracted Pidgeot squarely with its tail. The powerful force of the hit sent him flying all the way back to the shore, where he hit the ground and skidded a couple feet.

"Daniel!" Elizabeth yelled, flying over to him as fast as she could as he struggled to get up, but failed.

The Gyarados didn't seem satisfied with that, however, and started swimming where the bird had crash-landed at alarming speed, preparing to attacking again.

Thinking quick, Arella grabbed a Pokeball out of her hand, and a quick as she could, ran over in front of Daniel and Elizabeth and threw the ball. The red light enveloped the speeding Gyarados and it fell back to the ground in front of her.

Everyone that had seen the spectacle had their eyes on the pokeball as it slowly wobbled back and forth, and Arella's heart kept fluttering in response to the sheer amount of tension. Finally, it clicked, and it the tension quickly melted in to relief, most realizing they had held their breathes the entire time. The weather also seemed to breath a sigh of relief too as the torrential down-pour slowly but surely turned into a quiet rain-fall.

The Pokeball disappeared soon after, sent to her PC, but that didn't matter right now. What mattered most to her was that fast that Daniel was down.

"Daniel. . .are you okay?" she asked frantically as she turned around, kneeling next to Elizabeth.

He smiled, though he was obviously in pain, "I wish I was. . .But don't worry about me too much, I just need a trip to the pokemon center. . ."

Arella smiled back, "Don't worry, the pokemon center isn't far off."

She stood up again, recalling the injured Pidgeot back into his pokeball as Elizabeth flew back up to her trainer's height.

"I have to say, I'm completely impressed."

All three turned, and Arella stifled as gasp as soon as she saw the owner of the voice.

"You were. . .you were the guy from Ecutreak, right?" Arella asked, examining the man. His face was exactly like the guy she had talked to, but it was weird seeing him with his hair gelled and in dark, regal clothing with a cape flowing behind his back instead of the messy hair and pajamas that she had seen in the pokemon center.

"Yeah, the one who was going over to Mahogany to check out reports of Team Rocket activities," he nodded, "They're the ones behind the radio signal that started forcibly evolving those Magikarps, and made that Gyarados go into a rage."

"I figured by the fact they tried to charge me to get up here," she sighed, "And my Feraligatr spotted them running in and out of that building that's in the center of Mahogany."

The mysterious trainer's face suddenly went stern.

"You're. . .sure, right?"

"I'm very sure," Matthew answered for his trainer.

He paused, "That has to be their base of operations then," he quickly turned around and started walking away.

"Wha- Wait!"

He turned around again, eyeing her.

"Uh. . .this probably sounds weird, but. . .uh. . .I really want to help you," she looked the other way, biting her lip, "It's just. . .after the Slowpoke Well-"

"You're Arella then?"

". . .What?"

"The trainer that drove Team Rocket out of the Slowpoke Well?"

Arella was almost relived when he failed to mention the fact that she almost choked one of their admins to death.

"Uh, yeah. . ."

He smiled, "Normally I say no, but you're pretty good, and we seem to share the same cause."

"Go ahead of me then. I need to stop at the pokemon center," she nodded, before adding, "And. . .uh. . ."

"'And uh' what?"

". . .I never got your name."

The mysterious trainer frowned, his head obviously working over time before finally answering.

"My name's Lance," he nodded, then continued to walk away.


	29. Chapter 28: Into the Fire

The rain clouds that had stubbornly hung over Mahogany only moments ago had now mostly dispersed, with a few still unloading their burden down onto the earth. She didn't know exactly how hard though, since she could only gauge by the speed water droplets dropped down from the Pokemon Center's overhang.

She sat in the waiting area, legs drawn together to try to keep as much warmth as she could. She had already checked in a room and changed into a dry set of clothes, but she still felt soaked to the bone from the long span of time she was in heavy rain without any sort of protection.

Elizabeth sat next to her, simply looking at the ground. Arella knew she was worried for Daniel, though she was starting to think her feelings went a little past the norm. Matthew wasn't out anymore, deciding that he needed a break too after the strong headwinds they had faced getting up to the Lake of Rage.

Both trainer and pokemon looked up as one of the center's nurses walked up to them, clipboard in hand.

"You're the Pidgeot's trainer, correct?" she asked, smiling as she did.

"Yeah. . ."

"He'll be just fine, he just needs to stay here a little longer for further examination," she nodded before checking her clipboard again, "You can visit him if you want."

"I will," Elizabeth spoke up before she could even think of answer, turning to Arella, "You go do whatever you need to do, I'll stay with Daniel."

Arella almost protested, but the Beedrill seemed to have sensed it coming.

"Team Rocket uses mainly Poison types anyways, right? I won't be of much help in there even if I did go with you."

"I guess you're right," Arella laughed nervously, getting up as well, "I'll see you soon then."

"Of course."

* * *

She admitted, she never expected to see the scene inside the building in the center of Mahogany that she did when she entered.

It looked relatively inconspicuous, besides the stairway that led down below that was probably hidden before.

What surprised her, though, was what was taking place on the other side of the room from the staircase. A man was slumped against the wall, obviously in excruciating pain as his friend hovered over him. When he noticed Arella walk in, he managed to smile.

"You got a real tough ally, kiddie," he grinned, before coughing. Arella could only stare before heading down the stairs.

The house above was relatively like any other home, but below it screamed 'secret hideout'. The hallways were completely made of metal, echoing as she started to walk down it. She passed various gizmos and gadgets of all shapes and sizes, none of them she was exactly sure of what purpose they actually served. In fact, it almost looked like they did nothing at all.

As the hall echoed with her footsteps, she started thinking about what she saw upstairs. The guy looked pretty hurt, and told her that she had 'a real tough ally', which meant it definitely wasn't any of the other Team Rocket grunts.

Had Lance done that? He didn't seem like the kind of person to do that, but then again, she barely even knew him in general.

As she was thinking, she failed to notice the rather odd looking Persian statue sitting at the side of the hall, it's eyes glowing a bright red, casting a nearly invisible beam across the hallway. As she passed, the beam suddenly disappeared, and an alarm began to sound.

Surprised, Arella quickly turned around, then turned back, her brain quickly trying to register the fact that there was a wave of Magnemites heading her way from both directions.

It looked like she would have finally have to bring the new guy out.

She took the unfamiliar pokeball off of her belt, quickly releasing its contents into the hall. Before the red light could even fade away, a group of Magnemites were already down, and more so as it slowly faded off.

A disappearing red light revealed a Sudowoodo with a cigarette in it's mouth as it quickly bashed two more Magnemites together, grumbling as it did. After dumping rocks on the rest, he turned to his trainer.

"Seriously? You had to call me out of my ball for this?" he raised an eyebrow, "I have better things to do with my time."

"It could be worse, Harris," Arella smiled at him reassuringly, "I could have let you out in the rain."

Harris only grumbled, taking the cigarette out his mouth with two of his branchy fingers before smoldering it on the eye of the Magnemite that had tried to sneak up on him.

"Come on, we need to keep moving," Arella gestured towards the end of the hall before both walked towards it, Harris's footsteps echoing out a lot louder than Arella's.

Just as the end, she stopped short as she saw a shadow approaching the corner from the other side. Of course, she couldn't tell if she was relived or not when she saw that it wasn't a Team Rocket grunt, but rather Silver, his Meganium standing next to him.

"What're you doing here?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.

"What do you _think_ I'm doing here? Taking a sight-seeing tour?" Arella raised an eyebrow.

". . .You aren't seriously thinking about getting Team Rocket out of here, are you?" he stifled a laugh.

"Well that's certainly what you aren't doing right now."

The red-head grumbled, "I would, but some trainer named Lance wiped the floor with me, then started talking about the same pussy shit that you do," he eyed the Sudowoodo ,"What are you doing with one of those anyways? Don't you already have a Graveler?"

Arella's eyes turned wide, before she looked down. After a moment of silence, she walked straight past him without saying another word, Silver only watching her go.

"Smooth," his Meganium commented, chuckling as it's trainer glared at her.


	30. Chapter 29: Past in the Present

"Intruders _already_?"

The Team Rocket grunt gulped as Archer loomed over him, feeling like he was slowly shrinking below the head Rocket Admin.

"Y-yes sir, there's reports of 3 different people infiltrating our base in Mahogany right now."

Archer cursed under his breath, shaking his head before asking, "Have they identified them yet?"

"Two. One's the boy from the Slowpoke Well, the other's. . .reported to be Lance."

"Lance? As in _that _Lance?"

". . .Yes."

He side of his fist suddenly flew towards the wall, shaking both it and the grunt standing in front of him.

"Contact Petrel and tell him to guard that door's password with his life," he said as he turned to the shaken grunt, "And tell the agents we have in Kanto to make a distraction and get Lance out of Kanto before we get our main plan going."

"Yes sir," he saluted, then briskly walked out, just as Proton walked in sipping a Soda Pop.

"What's going on?" he asked, his eyes following the grunt out the door before looking back at Archer, taking another sip.

"Lance is at the Mahogany base."

Proton's sprayed out the remnants of his drink onto the floor, choking right after. As soon as he caught his breath, he looked back up, "Lance? As in-"

"Yes, as in that Lance," Archer cut him off, "And the boy that nearly choked you to death in the Slowpoke Well."

"Petrel and Arianna better kick his ass then," Proton grumbled.

"We can only hope," he shook his head, "How's planning going for our main attraction?"

"Well, it's definitely the one thing that's gone right for us so far," he sighed, "Place is fucking defenseless. We could go in there right now with what little troops we have and still have no problem taking it over."

He nodded, showing his approval before his expression changed again, "Proton? After the final plans have been confirmed, I'd like to transfer you to a. . .different project. One that deals with our. . .special guest, if Arianna and Petrel fail to take care of him."

Proton grinned, "Of course," he turned around, about to walk about before he turned his head back to Archer, "Hey Uncle?"

". . .Yes?"

"Thanks. . .just, for everything you've done for me after my parents were killed."

The admin only remained silent as his nephew walked out of the room.

* * *

"I was wondering when you'd show up."

Arella almost screamed in surprise, her mind racing as it had been dead silent right before the voice spoke up. Thankfully, she found it to be only Lance, his Dragonite standing strong next to him, instead of some Rocket grunt.

"Did you get held up by something?" he continued.

"Well, partly by getting my pokemon healed. . .and partly because of the alarm," she sighed.

"I triggered those Persian alarms when I first ran through them too. Pretty clever of them to hide them in robots," he dug in his pants pocket before producing a sheet of paper, handing it to the trainer, "The rest of the grunts don't seem to share the same trait as the people who designed those alarms though."

Arella opened the paper, and stared in confusion before looking up at Lance, asking "What are these?"

"Passwords. Some of the grunts told me them when I beat them. Apparently they open some door around here that opens with those, but the only password protected door I've found so far was voice activated."

"Which way is that one?" Arella put the paper into her pocket.

"Down the left hall, it's the only mechanical door around there so you can't miss it," he sighed, "I guess it'll be best if we split up and try to find this other door"

"Yeah. . ."

He started to walk away before Arella spoke up again.

"That guy in the room above. . .did you?"

"Yes, I did," he sighed, then turned back to her, "Though that's an interesting question coming from a person who almost choked one of Team Rocket's admins to death."

His words drove into her heart making her cringe, but she tried to not show it.

"Look, I blacked out, okay? I didn't have any control over my actions," she argued, "Why are you even so interested in taking down Team Rocket anyways?"

He paused before looking the trainer straight in the eye, his gaze cold.

"Have you ever heard of a man named Giovanni?"

She gulped, "U-uh, no. . ."

"5 years ago, an evil organization called Team Rocket rose up into Kanto, consisting of almost every single criminal ever in the region, and constantly terrorized the people there in their two-year reign. At the head of this organization was a man named Giovanni, a cool, calculating man who cleverly snuck his way in the league system to get a position as gym leader so no one would question his innocence.

"During this two year period, towns were terrorized, people were killed, pokemon were being used in such appalling ways that even the way the worst of pokemon trainers would treat their pokemon palled in comparison" he paused "During this time, no one in the entire league tried to stop them. The gym leaders, the Elite Four, not even the Champion himself, and Team Rocket was able to run amuck in Kanto without anyone trying to stop them."

". . .What eventually happened?"

"Two kids named Red and Blue suddenly appeared one day and took Team Rocket out so fast they didn't even know what hit him, and Giovanni went into hiding" he turned away again "From what I've been hearing from the grunts, their goal right now is to bring him back and restore them to their former glory and infest both Kanto and Johto. If they aren't crushed as quickly as possible, it's going to be a repeat of those two years, and who knows what they'll do then."

"How. . .How do you know all this?" Arella asked.

Lance only smirked "Wouldn't you like to know?" and he walked away, the trainer only staring as he did, her brain obviously working on overdrive trying to figure out something.


	31. Chapter 30: Love and Fear

"You look like you just got ran over by a stampede of Tauros."

Daniel's eyes slowly opened as he heard the familiar voice make a comment right next to him. He blinked a couple times to get used to the light, and was pleasantly surprised to see Elizabeth sitting on a high-rising stool next to the bed he was in.

". . .I feel like it too," he replied quietly, too sedated to speak any louder. The Beedrill laughed, then shook her head.

"The nurses say you're lucky to even be alive. . .I guess you have Arella to thank for catching that Gyarados before it went in for the kill," she sighed, dodging Daniel's weary gaze by staring at the far wall.

". . .Where is she?"

"She went down to the rocket base to meet up with that Lance guy. . .I volunteered to wait here with you," her gaze shifted from the wall to the floor, "She isn't back yet."

"You know her. . .she can take care of herself."

"And you know just as well the trouble she attracts. So that begs the question: were you trying to assure me or yourself?"

The Pidgeot smiled weakly, "Both."

Elizabeth laughed again, but still avoiding his gaze. Daniel finally noticed, and his expression turned into concern.

"Are you okay?"

She looked surprised at the question.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure? You look down. . ."

She remained silent for a while, mulling it over in her head before finally meeting the gaze she had been dodging for so long.

"Do you like me?"

The Pidgeot obviously hesitated before answering, ". . .It depends on which perspective you take," he sighed, "Naturally, I should have killed you a long time ago. But friendship wise, you are probably one of the best friends I ever have."

Elizabeth started avoiding his gaze again, fidgeting nervously as Daniel continued.

"Romantically, my instinct tells me not to do it. With the rules in place, either of us could die at any minute, and I don't want to put you through the grief of a lost loved-one if I die. . ."

"I. . .I see," she looked down, slumping as she did.

"But my hearts says that it's going to personally murder me if I pass up a girl like you."

The Beedrill perked up again before smiling, making it Daniel's turn to avert her gaze as his face turned a little red.

"Get better, okay? And trying not to anger any Gyaradoses when you do."

He laughed, "I'll try, no guarantees."

* * *

". . .And that's when I woke up in this world, not knowing how the hell I got here, and apparently replacing the life of someone else."

Harris only stared wide-eyed at his trainer as they walked down the metal hallway of the Rocket Hideout, his fresh cigarette nearly falling out of his mouth before he closed it, shaking his head as he did.

"That's a _really_tall tale if you ask me."

"Do you think a woman in her right mind would seriously name her boy 'Arella?" she raised an eyebrow.

". . .You got me there on that one," he sighed, "But that's still really hard to believe."

"I have trouble believing it myself sometimes," she looked away, "Sometimes I kinda wish that this was all just a dream, and that any minute I'd wake up and suddenly be home again in my familiar room with my familiar family," she looked back forward, giving a tiny smile, "But then I remember that I'd be leaving all of you guys behind."

The Sudowoodo simply shook his head, trying to hide the fact he was actually smiling a little, but then stopped short, making his trainer stop as well.

"What is it?" Arella asked, but he only simply pointed, and she looked that way. In front of them was what looked like a reinforced door that obviously wasn't going to budge any time soon.

"You think it might be the door that Lance guy was talking about?" Harris asked.

". . .I'm not sure," she frowned, walking up to it. With hesitance, she pushed a button next to the door, and part of the wall slid open, revealing a key pad.

"Well, I doubt voice-recognition doors need key-pads, so it might be the other door," she stated as she took the slip of paper out of her pocket, then unfolded it and read the words scribbled on it.

"Raticate Tail? Slowpoke Tail? Jesus, where do they come up with these passwords?" Arella mumbled as she typed them into keypad. As soon as she was done, the door opened wish a 'woosh', letting both trainer and pokemon inside.

Behind the door, was a room that was rather. . .small. It contained nothing but a couple more pointless machines and a table at the middle And. . .

And. . .

There was a person sitting at the table, wearing a clean-cut black suit and a fedora, and was staring directly at Arella and Harris with icy-blue eyes.

"Hm, I didn't expect visitors so soon," he smirked, standing up. Arella started to shiver a little, unable to tear her gaze away from the cold eyes as he continued to talk.

"You didn't think we'd reach our goal so soon, didn't you?" he chuckled, "But now you have me to contend with, and trust me, I'm not very forgiving about you ruining Team Rocket's plans."

"You're. . ." Arella trailed off, loosing her voice as she continued to stare at the man.

"That's right, I'm Giovanni."


	32. Chapter 31: Rocket Admins Galore

"No. . .Lance said you went into hiding! How the hell could you have gotten here so quickly?

"Of course, but they found me quite quickly after our failure at the Slowpo-"

"_Our_ failure?"

Both trainers looked over at Harris, his arms crossed and an expression of great skepticism decorating his face

"I'm pretty sure you mean _their_ failure. Unless, of course, you're not even that stupid Giovanni guy you're claiming to be"

The man's shocked expression slowly melted back into a smirk

"I'm happy enough you even thought I was Giovanni in the first place" he shook his head. He reached up to the fedora resting on his head, taking it off. As soon as it was all the way off, the man was enveloped in a wispy smoke

As soon as the smoke dispersed, Arella could see half the reason why he disguised himself in the first place. The only thing ominous looking about the man was the rocket uniform he had on, but the rest made him look more like a puppy-kicker than anything. He had a hair-line that had receded so far back she could barely see the bright purple he must have died it, or maybe was actually born with it since his goatee also sported the same bright purple. Plus, his drooping eyes and slouching gait made him look like he was about to melt into the floor

"Name's Petrel" he grinned "I heard about you from Proton, and he was mighty peeved that you ruined his pride. Plus, our boss would be mighty happy if I got rid of you here and now" he paused "But I'm feelin' kinda nice today, so I'll give you a couple seconds to skedaddle and never ruin or plans again, or you can stay here and I'll kick your ass so hard you'll loose your manhood"

Arella only smiled "That's assuming you can beat me in the first place"

"Brave kid, but you gotta have more than guts to beat me" he shook his head as he took out a pokeball on his belt, sending out the pokemon that remained within it

A Zubat came out, instantly charging at Harris and taking him completely by surprise. But despite his heavy body, he was able to just barely avoid the bat in time. In response, the Zubat flew in a sharp 180, charging at the Sudowoodo yet again. This time, he knew that he had no time to dodge the rabid bat, so he instead brought up and arm to try to fend himself from the attack. The Zubat seized the opportunity and opened his mouth, biting down on the arm he had brought up

And instantly regretting it

The moment it's teeth tried to sink down on the rock-type Pokemon's arm, they instantly cracked, then snapped off. The Zubat quickly pulled away, then let out a high-pitched screech due to the excruciating pain. Taking the chance, Harris struck the Zubat, sending him flying into the far wall. It stayed there for a little bit, as if the force had actually stuck it to the wall, then slowly slid down to the floor

Next came out a Koffing, who flew up near to the ceiling and out of the Sudowoodo's reach as soon as he saw him. As soon as it stopped, something within it's body started bubbling, and it shot a large glob of gunk from it's mouth. It missed, and instead hit the floor, bubbling it made contact. It started to slowly erode the floor underneath it and crack the ground around it. It fired 4 more shots, all of them missing, but each one landing on the ground right next to the previous one, eventually making a nice, neat little circle of eroding acid on the ground

Both Koffing and Sudowoodo stared down for a moment, but Harris grinned eventually as an idea suddenly crossed his mine. He struck a spot on the ground with the least eroding acid as hard as he could and made several chunks of the floor pop out. Wasting little precious time, he smacked them up, hitting the Koffing directly and sending him to the wall, where he eventually joined the fallen Zubat

As the Rocket Admin noticed he was already down two pokemon, his expression turned sour and he sent out his last pokemon: a Raticate that seemed to share the same anger level as it's trainer. It instantly rushed at Harris, landing blow by blow. He could only block the fury of attacks as it made him slowly slide back with every hit it landed

Finally, the rat relented, standing in a proud stance by his master and staring Harris right in the eyes. Harris stared back, but with a less proud look and a more tired look and was starting to pant lightly

". . .You okay Harris?"

"Fine, but the bugger's _fast_" he grumbled "I'm not sure if I'll be able to even land a blow on him"

Arella leaned over to Harris from where she was standing and whispered something in his ear. The Sudowoodo's expression gradually seeped back to a smile as his panting slowly disappeared

"It's a long shot, but it may work" Arella stated as she stood back up

"Better than nothing" he replied, than lowered his stance and barred his teeth, as if he were mimicking the Raticate. Enraged, it charged at Harris, and he did the same, both of them clashing and then jumping back soon afterwards. The started circling each other, both waiting for the other to move. Finally, the rat charged again. They clashed, then jumped back once again

It repeated a few more times, Harris perfectly mimicking the other pokemon's moves as it grew more and more frustrated. Finally, it tried to strike again ,but this time instead of copying it, it instead waited for the rat to come with him. Surprised by it not copying him, it hesitated, and he took the opportunity to sweep it's tiny feet out from under it, then send it to the far wall with his other two friends

"You're good" he grumbled, calling back all three pokemon, then turning back to Arella

"So you're here for the password to the other door?" he asked, getting a shocked expression from the other trainer. He just grinned "It's 'All Hail Giovanni', but you aren't getting in without my voice!"

Before either trainer or pokemon could act, he was enveloped in a cloud of dark smoke. By the time it cleared out, there was no trace of Petrel anywhere, and Arella sighed

"Now how are we going to get that door open?" she bit her lip as she turned to Harris, but the only answer he could provide was a shrug

"All Hail Giovanni!"

Both of them turned in surprise to the source of the voice that sounded exactly like the Rocket Admin that had just fled, and were quite surprised to find a lone Murkrow standing in the back of the room, repeating the phrase over and over in Petrel's voice. Harris and Arella stared at the bird, then at each other, then at the bird again, and the Murkrow shuddered

* * *

"All Hail Giovanni! All Hail Giovanni! All Hail Giovanni!"

The Murkrow squawked as Arella lunged for the bird, but it moved out of the way just in time, making the trainer land on the floor with a hard thud

"I'm having a compelling sense of déjà vu" Arella grumbled as Harris walked up next to her

"We've been chasing this bird for 10 minutes. I think it's probably time we think of a different tactic" Harris sighed

"All Hail Giovanni!" is squawked again, running down to the end of all the hall. It stopped again, squawked, then the door behind it suddenly opened.

"Ha! It worked!" Arella looked back at Harris and pointed, but he only shook his head as his trainer got up

"Dumb luck" he sighed again, and both walked towards the end of the hall, failing to notice the Murkrow suddenly looked to the side, as if he saw something. Finally, the Murkrow turned back around, and suddenly took flight, taking both trainer and pokemon by surprise as it knocked back Arella, trying to scratch at her face

Harris turned around to try to help, but instantly felt something on his body and suddenly couldn't move. He looked down only to see an Ekans with a tight grip on his body, and didn't look like he was going to move any time soon

As soon as that happened, the Murkrow relented, letting the trainer look up to see the Murkrow fly back to a female standing in the hallway with a Rocket grunt standing next to her. By the way she was dressed, she assumed she was yet another Rocket admin, and definitely trouble

"You've been a thorn in our side ever since the Slowpoke Well, and even Petrel couldn't take care of you" she smiled "But he's an old fool anyways. I, on the other hand, will not show the same stupidity that that old fart did, so I'll give you a choice: Either leave right now and never come back, or your pokemon over there is going to be crushed to tiny bits"


	33. Chapter 32: It Keeps Getting Better

"The hag's bluffing. Like hell this Ekans will-" Harris trailed off, wincing as the snake's grip grew tighter, but he refused to let the pain show in front of his trainer.

"I'd suggest keeping your trap shut if you want to walk out of here alive," the Rocket admin glared at him.

"It's the only way I will walk out of here," he grinned despite being in obvious pain, "Can't necessarily walk when I'm dead."

She opened her mouth to retort, but lost her train of thought as the grunt next to her started to speak.

"Umm. . .Arianna."

"What?" she snapped, turning to the grunt, then she slowly turned down to the other side of the hall and her face lost color.

Before Arella could even figure out what was happening, a giant beam of energy filled the hallway. It missed all three of the trainers barely, but a good chunk of it hit the Ekans that was coiled around Harris, making it let go. It writhed around in pain on the floor for a good chunk of time, then ceased moving.

When the beam finally disappeared, Arella looked down the hallway where Arianna had looked moments before, then smiled.

"Took you long enough," she called to Lance, who was standing at the end of the hallway right next to his Dragonite.

"You're welcome," he called back, his voice laced with annoyance.

Frantic, Arianna looked at Arella, than Lance, then Arella again before finally turning to the grunt.

"Stall him."

The grunt's eyes widened as he looked at Lance, then looked back at his superior.

"But that's-"

"I know who that is!" she snapped, "I'm not expecting you to win! I just need you to stall him!"

The grunt looked like he was about to object, then stopped and solemnly turned the other way, pulling a pokeball off his belt slowly as he did. Arianna faced the other way, and her face was red from anger.

"You. . .You twat!" she yelled, "You are going to pay dearly for this! Take her pokemon out Murkrow!"

The Murkrow that had been resting on her arm took off at alarming speed and headed straight for Harris despite the obvious type advantage. The Sudowoodo only smirked, preparing to counter the rush, but was caught off guard when the bird suddenly disappeared. He looked around frantically, trying to find where it had disappeared to, but didn't even think about checking behind him till he was struck there. The surprise attack nearly knocked him down, but he was able to regain his footing in time.

The bird turned around and charged at the tree again, once again disappearing. This time, though, Harris was ready for it. He remained completely still, listening for any type of clue that would give away where it would appear. Finally, it came, and Harris struck what looked like thin-air, but wasn't for long as the Murkrow went flying down the hall, bouncing off the floor a couple times before skidding to a stop.

The Sudowoodo was still internally gloating at what had just happened when Arianna sent out her next pokemon, and didn't even know what happened when a rain of yellow spores came raining down on him. He accidentally sucked one in, and started hacking, trying to get the spore out, but failing as his body slowly went numb.

"Think you're so tough now?" Arianna raised an eyebrow, smirking as the Gloom that she had sent out confidently walked closer to Harris, who was still hacking his lungs out.

Arella's eyes narrowed at Arianna, and before the Rocket Admin could react, she grabbed another pokeball off of her belt and deployed it. The red beam came out, and the Gloom was stricken before it even had time to fade, and was taken out.

When the red light finally faded, Alucard was flying next to Arella, flashing a toothy grin.

"Did you seriously think that I only had a Sudowoodo?" The trainer raised an eyebrow as Arianna's expression started melting to pure horror. She looked back at the grunt behind her, but he shook his head.

"I just ran out too," he said hesitantly, obviously not wanting to give his superior the bad news. She looked at both Lance and Arella again, frantically trying to think of something.

"Is this thing on?"

All 4 trainers looked up at the source of the voice to find a speak protruding from it.

"It is? Oh, yes. Attention Rocket Base raiders: That machine behind the metal door will be exploding in 5 minutes, possibly collapsing the base and Mahogany on top of it, and the only way to stop it is to turn it off. You might want to get working on that and not trying to take in Arianna, because you won't be able to do both. And please, take my word for it."

"Thank you Petrel," Arianna grinned, looking Arella straight in the eye. Unsure of what to do, she looked up at Lance. He mulled it over for a while, then slowly nodded, though it looked like it pained him to do it, and both Arianna and grunt ran straight past Arella, neither trainer watching them go as they did.

Instead, she called back Harris and Alucard, and they rushed over to the previously locked room, which held a giant machine in the center. Despite its size, however, the machine was relatively quiet, and would be near impossible to hear from the other side of a wall.

Arella gulped as she saw her worst fears turn into reality: right on the machine there was a timer, slowly counting down from 5 minutes, just like Petrel had said.

"Ahem, rocket base raiders," Petrel's voice came back on the speaker, "I'll also have to inform you that the machine lacks an on/off switch, so have fun figuring out how to shut it off yourself!"

"This keeps getting better and better," Lance grumbled, but Arella's attention had already been preoccupied elsewhere, and she couldn't help by smile.

"I found it."


	34. Chapter 33: Going to Ruins

"Wha- What do you mean you. . .found. . .it," Lance's harsh question suddenly tapered off as he followed the other trainer's gaze.

On the other side of the room was an answer to their problem. A few Electrodes, 6 to be exact, where busy rolling on conveyer belts that seemed to be making the machine and the bomb running.

"That's what's been keeping it running," he sighed, "It's not their fault they're being forced to power the machine, but we need to get rid of them for it to turn off."

"I'll take 3 if you take 3."

"Deal."

Arella went for Harris's ball, then froze, remembering the battle she had just been in. He was paralyzed by the Gloom's powder, and she had to go back to the pokemon center to heal that.

"Electrodes don't learn electric attacks naturally," Lance stated, as if he had read the trainer's thoughts.

"Thanks," Arella nodded, her hand shifting to another pokeball before grabbing it and letting the red light come out and take the shape of Matthew, who eyed the white and red balls wearily.

"I do hope you know what you're doing," he sighed as he continued to watch them.

"I know exactly what I'm doing," she lied. She knew Matthew probably saw through it eventually, but she rather would have him doubt her later instead of now.

Both Matthew and Lance's Dragonite rushed forward and made quick work of the Electrodes. The Dragonite let out a Hyper Beam, instantly decimating them as Matthew tore the other three apart with his claws before they could do anything.

Both Arella and Lance remained silent as they watched, but then the mysterious trainer spoke up.

"This is far too easy."

"Hm?" Arella turned to Lance.

"Team Rocket's known for playing dirty, and this is being entirely too easy. Something's not right," he grumbled.

She thought for a moment, then walked back over to the front of the machine and checked the timer.

". . .That's what's wrong," she sighed, and Lance turned to her before she continued "Timer's already down, no explosion, nothing. They tricked us."

He cursed under his breath several times before shaking his head, "Even without Giovanni, they're still clever as always. It makes me wonder who's running the show. . ."

"You mean you still don't know who the boss is?" Arella asked.

"No. We've identified all three of the admins, but we have no idea who's controlling them."

She bit her lip before speaking up again.

". . .How do you know all of this stuff?"

Lance studied the trainer for a while, then opened his mouth to speak, but something in his pocket started ringing. He closed his mouth again, then picked up the PokeGear and looked at it.

". . .That will have to wait for another time," he sighed, putting it back, "I just got a report of some Rocket activity in Kanto, and they need me there as soon as possible," he looked back at Arella, "You're still doing the gym challenge correct?"

"Uh, Yeah. . ."

"Keep going at that, and maybe we'll see each other again," he nodded, then promptly left, Dragonite following closely behind.

* * *

"But. . .he looked so awake and. . ."

"I'm sorry, but sometimes powerful pain medication can make people say things they don't remember. It's not your fault nor his."

Arella and Matthew walked into the pokemon center just in time to hear the exchange between the nurse and Elizabeth, who were standing near the patient ward. Elizabeth's gait was obviously drooped, and the nurse had a worried look on her face as she talked.

"Elizabeth?" Arella asked as she walked up to her, and she turned around quickly, tense. As soon as she saw it was only her trainer, however, she relaxed a little.

". . .You guys are back," she managed to let out a tiny smile, but it was easy to see it was forced.

"What's happening?"

"Um. . .nothing. Nothing's happening," she shook her head.

"Elizabeth. . ." Arella frowned, reaching out for her, but the Beedrill smacked her hand away.

"Look. . .I. . .I just need some alone time. . .okay?" she looked down, then buzzed passed trainer and pokemon towards the exit. Matthew glanced at Arella, shook his head, then followed Elizabeth out. Before Arella could say anything, another nurse approached her.

"Arella, correct?" she asked, and the trainer nodded solemnly.

"Your Pidgeot is ready to be checked out if you want him back."

". . .Yes please" she nodded, and watched the nurse walked away again.

* * *

AN: So I totally can't believe I forgot to mention this, but the super awesome LayneMuffins gave me two gift sketches that are on my profile! (or will be as soon as my profile updates) She's so sweet and you should totally check out her stuff on here and on dA!


	35. Chapter 34: Deep in Thought

"I thought I told her to leave me alone."

Elizabeth was sitting on a bench on the outskirts of Mahogany, looking up at the drizzle above instead of the Feraligatr that was approaching her.

"She is. Arella didn't tell me to do anything."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"Informing you you're going to catch a cold if you stay our here for too long."

She glared at him, "Be serious."

He sighed, "What happened?"

"Nothing happened."

"You're a terrible liar."

Elizabeth looked down at the road before speaking again, "Why do you want to know?"

"Because it's usually better to get if off your chest?" he shrugged "And apparently you really don't want to talk to Arella right now."

"It's not like I don't want to talk to her. . ." she shook her head, "I just. . .I guess I really don't want her to see me like this."

"As I said before, it's usually better to get it off your chest."

The Beedrill went silent again, then shook her head.

"It's Daniel."

"What did he do?"

"It's not what he did really. . .more like what happened to him," she paused again, "I told him I liked him, and he said he liked me back. He feel asleep after a while, and when he woke up, he said he didn't remember any conversation like that taking place."

". . .So he doesn't like you?"

"He didn't say anything of the sort!" she snapped, "He just said he didn't remember the conversation taking place and fell right back asleep. And even if he didn't, I wouldn't of asked him again because it was stupid enough in the first place to ask him while he was under all that pain medication."

"And it didn't occur to you that he could have been lying and using the pain medications as an excuse to take that decision back the easy way."

"Just **what** are you trying to get at?" she yelled, buzzing up into the air to meet Matthew's height.

"I'm trying to be realistic."

"What you're doing is being a pessimist, and trying to drag me down with you. You were a decent pokemon before you started blaming Arella for Fudge's death."

"That's because it was her fault!"

"We all know it wasn't! That battle was officially over, and none of us knew that Steelix was going to get back up or else we would have done something" she sighed "I know you and Fudge were best friends, but blaming Arella for all of this isn't going to bring him back. Hell, you're just dragging all of us down with you into your silly little puddle of self-pity. You can't even tell that Arella's falling apart as the seams because of you. Every little thing she does, she knows she being judged by you, and it's tearing her into tiny pieces."

He growled, "And how the hell do you know all that?"

"Well if you opened your Arceus damn eyes for once, you'd. . .see it" she trailed off, "I know the real Matthew is in there, the one that still cares for Arella, or else you would have told her what she almost did to Jasmine."

Matthew looked down at the road, just enough to hide his expression. Elizabeth shook her head again before starting to buzz off. However, she stopped, and turned back to the Feraligatr.

"Plus, we both know Daniel would never lie to me."

* * *

"I lied to her."

The sudden comment from Daniel resonated throughout the otherwise empty hallway, startling Arella and making them both stop.

". . .What do you mean by that?"

He sighed, "I lied to her about not remembering a conversation. . .so I could take back what I had told her earlier."

The trainer paused before continuing, "What happened?"

"She confessed to me, so I confessed back. But. . ." he shook his head, ashamed of himself, "I panicked when I woke back up, scared that I made a decision too suddenly, so I lied right to her face."

Arella offered him a tiny smile, "It took you guys that long?"

Daniel, confused by the sudden question, looked up at her.

"What do you mean?"

"I bet everyone on the team's noticed by now the looks you guys have been giving each other since Ecutreak," she smiled a little wider, stopping in front of a door, unlocking it and stepping in, "Well, except Harris probably, but I don't think I've even introduced any of you guys to him yet."

". . .So what should I do about Elizabeth?"

"Tell her when you can that you panicked and made a mistake, the sooner the better. Girls like it when you admit to a mistake as soon as you can."

"Tell who what now?"

Both Arella and Daniel's attention snapped to the lone bed in the room, which used to be empty, but was now holding up three pokemon. Harris was sitting on the edge of the bed, arms and legs crossed with a smoldering cigarette in his mouth, and Hana sitting fully on the bed with Alucard draped on her.

"I'm really starting to regret letting you guys learn how to get out of pokeballs on your own," Arella sighed.

"You know you love us," Hana stuck out her tongue.

"What's going on anyways?" Harris asked.

". . .Trivial matters. Nothing you guys need to worry about," Daniel shook his head.

"But that makes me want to know mooooore," the Jumpluff pouted.

"About what?"

All 5 occupants in the room turned to find Elizabeth, still wet from the outside drizzle and her expression showing signs of annoyance.

". . .Where's Matthew?" Arella asked.

"Still outside," she sighed, "Thinking. Him and I had a nice. . .talk. . ."

"About what?"

"About you."

* * *

The rain was starting to pour from the sky a little harder as Matthew entered the Mahogany pokemon center, ducking his head so he didn't hit the top of the doorway.

He didn't like to admit it, but the Beedrills words had left their imprint in his brain. He thought he was his normal self, but couldn't help but think of what had happened since Fudge's death. Calling his own trainer bad, the growling he had apparently really never done before, and ripping those Electrodes to complete shreds. Now trying to convince Elizabeth that Daniel didn't like her? Even he could tell they were both head-over-heels for each other.

She stopped in front of the door Arella had checked out, and was surprised to find a note taped to it, along with a key taped to the note. Curious, he ripped the note of the door and read it.

_You two both need a break from each other. Trust me  
~Elizabeth_

He sighed. Maybe he really did need a break, just for one night. A night not having to think of Arella.

Matthew shook his head, taking the note with him and walking down the hall. As he did, he could hear the faint noise of someone sobbing on the other side of the door.


	36. Chapter 35: Calm Before the Storm

The ground in Mahogany was still rather wet from the torrential rain they had seen for the past few days, but it was drying up as the sun peaked over the far-off mountains in the west. The Pidgies and Spearows were out again, chirping and going along their daily business and scavenging for any food that might have been washed up with the rain.

The tranquil near-silence was slightly disturbed when the door of the resident gym slid open with a 'woosh', and Arella and Harris stepped out of the gym, a new gym-badge in hand.

"That was a lot easier then expected," she sighed.

"Well of course it was," Harris shrugged, the cigarette in his mouth moving as he talked, "The old man didn't even bother using and water moves. He just kept using ice moves."

"Well, it is an ice gym. . ." she trailed off, "Do you think the others are awake yet?"

Before Harris the question, it was answered for him as his trainer ran into a giant wall of muscle. Looking up, Arella saw it was Matthew looking down at her.

". . .Morning" she said finally.

"Morning," he nodded.

"What are you doing up this early?"

". . .I wanted to apologize," he looked away.

Any words the might have come out of Arella's mouth then suddenly disappeared, choked up, as her brain processed this information. She thought Matthew had hated her. . .

"I've. . .been unfair to you. Calling you a terrible trainer and saying Fudge's death was your fault. . .I. . .guess I just want to blame someone, and you were the only one there."

The tranquil silence suddenly seemed more noticeable as the Feraligatr paused, and it almost became unbearable to both pokemon and trainer. Finally, Matthew broke the silence again.

"So. . .I'm sorry. . ." he looked down, "Can you forgive me?"

"Oh Matthew. . ." Arella bit her lip to try to keep from crying, then hugged him, surprising the Feraligatr.

"Matthew, you know I would never be mad at you!"

Harris coughed impatiently, making Arella giggle and let go of Matthew. She looked back up at him, and smiled, "Let's go back to the room, okay?"

"Let's," he nodded.

* * *

She had to admit. She was quite surprised of the scene the lay before her in the hotel room. And judging by Matthew and Harris's looks, they were too.

She had honestly expected them to all still be asleep, or just waking up, or moving around groggily. Instead, they were all gathered in one corner of the room, eyes wide as Arella could just barely make out the slight static of the radio.

The first to notice them was Elizabeth, who, instead of saying anything, just gestured them over to the radio as well. As the group of three walked over, Arella could hear the radio broadcast that was playing.

". . .not sure what exactly is going on, but all contact inside the Radio Tower of Goldenrod has suddenly been cut off, and people in Team Rocket uniforms has been seen running around Goldenrod. Authorities, however, are assuring everyone that there's just some electronical failure in the tower, and Team Rocket isn't there since they disbanded three years ago. . ."

As the announcer said the last three words, the radio slowly began producing more and more static until it completely covered up her voice. Then, it started changing pitches at alarming speeds like someone was fiddling with it before it went silent, then quite static again, but no more announce. Instead, a different voice went on the air.

"Testing, testing," a male voice said, then some talking in the background was heard, a cheer, and the man started talking again.

"Ha! We did it! Giovanni, if you're listening to the radio now, we've gotten Team Rocket back together and taken over the Radio Tower! Come over to Goldenrod and lead us to glory again! I repeat-"

Arella walked over to the radio and changed the channel, but to no avail. Every single channel they could get a signal on was the same thing: calling Giovanni over to Goldenrod.

"They're back. . ." Arella said quietly as the radio continued to fill the room.


	37. Chapter 36: Descent into Darkness

"Admit it, I saved your ass."

"I would have figured out a way to get out of there, even if you hadn't intervened."

"So what was your plan to get past Lance and the kid from the Slowpoke Well without pokemon? Hm? Or did you even have one?"

Both Proton and Archer looked up from their work in their makeshift control room as they heard both Petrel and Arianna from done the hall, arguing as usual.

"There they go again," Proton rolled his eyes as Archer got up from his spot. "They fight like a married couple."

Archer didn't respond to the comment. Instead, he walked over to the door and opened it. Down the hallway, he could see the crowd of Rocket grunts slowly part, trying to stay out of the way of the two arguing admins so they're anger didn't suddenly turn to them. However, they soon stopped short when they saw Archer standing in the door way, and both went quiet.

"I'm actually surprised both of you were able to make it back in one piece," The main admin commented as both Arianna and Petrel walked through the door silently.

"Well, Arianna might have not made it if it wasn't more my help," Petrel glared at Arianna.

"Oh bullshit. All you did was trick them into thinking that radio machine would explode," Arianna glared back, "At least I didn't get my entire team beat by one pokemon."

"Because two is any better, and I weakened that one before you fought it so you might as well have just fought one fully-healed one."

"Enough," Archer stated, and both admins went quiet again, though they did continue to glare at each other.

"Look, does the guy from the Slowpoke Well even have a name yet?" Proton asked, annoyance lacing his voice as he turned from his work.

"He does, actually," Archer replied, picking up a folder from his desk, "Though his entire file is very strange."

"Strange how?" Arianna asked, taking a break from glaring at the other admin next to her.

"Well, his name for starters. I doubt any sane woman would name their son 'Arella'."

The younger admin snorted, and Archer continued.

"Plus he's been collecting badges like a mad-man. He only set out a good two weeks ago and he already has 7 badges," he closed the folder throwing it back on the desk, "Other than that, there isn't much to go off of."

"Eh, it won't take much to get 'im," Proton shrugged.

"Whoa, whoa. . .wait," Petrel looked at Archer, then Proton, then back at Archer, "What do you mean 'get 'im'?"

Archer smiled, "Did you really think we'd let him run wild while we're in control?"

Arianna smiled back, "Tell me more about this plan of yours. . ."

* * *

"How long has he been gone?"

"Only a couple minutes. He should be back soon."

". . .A lone Pidgeot would be kind of suspicious flying above Goldenrod."

"Even if it is, Daniel's tough. He can take it."

Both Arella and Matthew were standing by the entrance building to the north of Goldenrod, waiting. Other than them, the area was completely barren. The only noise besides them talking was the random chirps and growls of wild pokemon. Even those were a lot quieter than usual, however, since the ones that had sensed the danger taking place in Goldenrod had long disappeared.

Minute by tedious minute passed by in the silence as both pokemon and trainer looked different ways. Sometimes there would be the sound of flapping wings, getting Arella's hopes up, but it would end up just being a wild Pidgey or Spearow.

Finally, the sound of wings beating was much louder this time, and Daniel descended in front of the two, ruffling his feathers as he landed.

"Sorry it took so long," he apologized as he finished ruffling his feathers, "Goldenrod is a lot bigger than it seems."

"So what's the scoop?" Matthew asked.

"They haven't taken over just the Radio Tower; they've taken over the entire city. There are Rocket grunts everywhere on the streets, especially in front of the Radio Tower itself, so I don't think it would be a good idea to just barge in and hope we get lucky. We need a plan."

"Whitney."

Both Daniel and Matthew looked over at Arella, a confused look on their face.

"Whitney's the gym leader of Goldenrod, so she probably knows everything there is to know about the city. Plus, her gym is really close to the entrance so it'll be easy to sneak by without any of the grunts noticing us."

The Pidgeot smiled, "There's the Arella I know."

* * *

She was the gym leader. It was her job to protect the people in this town, and this is all she could muster?

Whitney sunk to her knees as she watched her precious Milktank fall, the Golbat that downed it flying victorious. Everyone in the city had taken refuge in here, and it was her job to protect them. Why was she so weak then?

She looked over at the rest of girls of the gym, and all of them slowly shook their head. They too were out of pokemon.

"Looks like your time is up girlie," The rocket grunt grinned as Whitney recalled her Milktank, her face down. How could she have disappointed everyone like that? They were all counting on her, and she failed.

She looked back up, however, when collective gasps suddenly spread through the people crowded in the gym, and she saw why. The Golbat was downed, and someone was standing in the doorway.

"Didn't your mom ever tell you to play nice with girls?"

Everyone in the room, including the Rocket grunt, turned to the doorway, and Whitney smiled in glee as she recognized the person.

"Arella!" she called, and the grunt's expression dropped into pure horror.

"Because you never know which ones have a guy behind them," Arella smirked, and the Feraligatr standing beside her cracked his knuckles.

"T-This won't be the last time you hear from us!" the grunt yelled, then sped straight past Arella through the door. She watched him through the transparent doors, smirking, before nearly being knocked over by something. When she looked, it was Whitney, hugging her tight.

"I thought I was done for sure. . ." she said quietly, sniffling a little, "I'm such. . .such a terrible gym leader."

Arella hugged her back, patting her on the head, "It's okay. I'm sure you did the best you could," she looked down at the gym leader, who's face was buried in her chest, "How many Rockets have you been attacked by anyways?"

"That was the 32nd," one of the girl in the gym answered for Whitney, "We're all out of useable pokemon, and the person we sent out to go get supplies from the market still hasn't come back."

"What about locking the door?" Arella asked.

"The lock's busted. Been for a while now, and it was supposed to be fixed today, but then Team Rocket took over the Radio Tower," the girl replied.

"Someone's coming," Matthew stated, and everyone turned back to the door as the room fell silent. Eventually, a girl came staggering in the door, beat up and carrying a rather large sack. Whitney unburied herself from Arella's chest and looked up, then gasped.

"Kelly, you made it!" she exclaimed, hugging her.

"Yeah. . .barely though," Kelly forced out a smile even though it was obvious she was in pain, "But I grabbed as much as I could carry."

". . .So you'll be good then?" Arella asked as Whitney helped Kelly to the back of the gym.

"Yeah. . .why?" Whitney turned to Arella.

". . .Is there an underground entrance to the Radio Tower?"

Whitney nearly dropped Kelly when she heard the question, instead dropping her jaw.

"You're not seriously thinking about taking on Team Rocket, are you?"

"I've done it before, I can do it again," she nodded, "Look: when I listened to the radio before they completely took it over, the authorities were denying anything was wrong in the first place, so there's no way they're coming anytime soon."

The gym leader mulled it over, leaving the gym in an awkward silence, before she turned to one of the girls and nodded. She nodded back, and went to work removing a tile from the floor, revealing a secret entrance.

"That'll get you to the underground tunnel, which'll get you to the Radio Tower," she nodded.

"Thanks," Arella nodded, walking over to the entrance, "I owe you one."

"No. . ." she shook her head, "We're even. And. . .uh. . ."

Arella paused, looking back at Whitney as she seemed to stumble on words, blushing a little as she did. Finally, the words came out.

". . .Be careful."

The trainer nodded back and descended down into the darkness, Matthew following close behind.

Arella had to admit: she was quite unnerved by the dark tunnel, only lighted by the occasional light on the side of the wall. The metal hallways echoed both hers and Matthew's footsteps as they walked, making it hard to tell if they were really the only ones in the tunnel. However, her Feraligatr's presence in front of her as they both walked somewhat calmed her.

That is, until something grabbed her by the hood of her jacket, pulling her back into another person. She tried to scream, but a hand instantly clamped over her mouth, and a knife pressed to her neck.

"You're a thorn in our side, and the boss needs you gone," were the last words she heard before she felt something hard hit the back of her head, and she descended into darkness.


	38. Chapter 37: Let Him Speak

_"I have to thank you again for giving me a place to stay, Turner."_

_"Oh, it's no problem Archer. Anything for my little brother."_

_The door of the nice cozy home opened, and two older men walked in, one holding a suitcase. Both of them looked very similar in appearance as they chatted, smiling, though one was clearly a little older than the other._

_"Oh, Turner, you're home," a woman walked into the hallway to see the two men and turned her gaze to Archer, "You're Turner's brother that I keep hearing so much about then?"_

_"Yes, my name's Archer," he nodded, shaking hands with the woman._

_"It's a pleasure to meet you finally."_

_"Oh please, the pleasure's all mine," he smiled._

_"You should meet our son too," she turned just in time to see a teenage boy running down the steps, "Brandon! This is your Uncle Archer!"_

_"Hey," he lifted up a hand, then continued on to the kitchen without any sign of interest in the new-comer._

_"Brandon! Didn't any of those manners stick in your head when. . ."_

_Opting to block out the scolding, Archer turned back to his brother._

_". . .Thank you again, really"_

_"As I said, no problem," he smiled again, then looked towards the kitchen where his wife was yelling before whispering, "Just. . .try not to let my wife know too many details, okay?"_

* * *

Arella was surprised when she woke up, mainly because of the familiarity of the place, and the fact that she hadn't been there in a while.

It was the endless white plain, stretching all around her like she remembered it did. But weirdly, Ellen was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she heard a faint sobbing noise somewhere in the distance, and the constant muttering of words she couldn't understand at all. Curious, she walked over to the sound of sobbing, though not entirely sure she was actually getting anywhere due to the endless white.

Finally, she saw Ellen in the distance, sitting down on the ground with her back hunched over and her knees drawn as her chest sporadically heaved up and down.

". . .Ellen?" Arella called finally, and the Pikachu looked up, her tear-streamed eyes meeting the trainer's.

"This. . .this. . .this wasn't supposed to happen," she sobbed, "I'm so sorry for dragging you into this. I'm so. . .sorry. . .

"What do you-" Arella started to ask, but fell through the floor before she could, and Ellen watched her as she fell into nothingness.

* * *

_Click click_

Arella's eyes slowly opened, and was greeted by unfamiliar surroundings. She almost panicked, but then the memories of what happened earlier came flooding back to her. Some guy had grabbed her and knocked her out, and now she was here.

She started scanning the room to find out where exactly 'here' was, and sighed. Windows stretched around the entire wall, showing the early morning version of what she recognized as Goldenrod. And other than a giant pillar in the middle and a railing wrapping around the room, it was completely empty.

_Click click_

Well, except for Proton, standing rather far away, but still close enough for the pillar not to block her view of him as he toyed with his knife.

And then it dawned on her, and she cursed under her breath.

She had fallen in their trap, and they had captured her. She should of figured this would happen after she felled both the Slowpoke Well and Lake of Rage operations, but she thought she could handle it. Of course, now her right hand was handcuffed to the railing above her and all of her pokeballs were missing. She tested the handcuff, and found it to be definitely sturdy. There was no way in hell she was getting out of this.

And for some reason, she felt really calm. She should have been freaking the hell out right now, but it was like her brain wouldn't let her. Hell, she almost wanted to laugh for being so stupid.

_Click click_

That's when Proton looked up, and both trainer and admin locked eyes. It didn't last long though, as Proton turned away with a smug look and to the other side of the room.

"Archer. He's awake."

Okay, _now_she was panicking.

Lance had said himself that he had no idea who was controlling the resurrected Team Rocket until they got Giovanni back, so she had absolutely no idea what to expect as a shadowy figure came out from behind the pillar. As he stepped into the early morning light, Arella could see more than just a shadow.

The man's soft turquoise hair was a breath from the other admins brightly colored dos, but his face was sharp and drawn out, almost like a cat's. Glancing back at forth at both admins also made her notice that their facial structures were somewhat similar, but she dismissed it off as nothing.

"You've been out for quite a while now," Archer stated, a tiny smile forming on his lips, "I thought you'd never wake up."

_Click click_

Arella remained silent, only glaring at Archer, who returned the gesture with a chuckle.

"I guess you're still MADDEN about what happened in the tunnel, and I do apologize for that. But, it was necessary, because you know as well as I that this is the only way we'd just talk, and not jump to conclusions so easily."

"Just to **talk**?" Arella finally spoke, skepticism lacing her voice as she pointed to her handcuffed hand.

"Precaution. You're temper was quite famous after you nearly killed a certain admin of mine," he glanced quickly at Proton before returning his gaze to the trainer before him, "But there's more pressing matters at hand, like. . .let's say. . .your pokemon, perhaps?"

She body went rigid and her jaw dropped down a little. Remember the position she was in, she closed her mouth back up and looked down, trying to hide her expression.

"Don't worry too much about them, they're fine. Of course, it may not seem that way, but we had to take the same precautions that we did with you," Archer shrugged, "But they'll be fine. . .that is, if you let me speak."

_Click, click_

Arella remained silent again, making the Rocket admin take it as an allowance to speak more, not that he needed it in the first place.

"Tell me this," he walked over to the side of the observation deck, letting himself bask in the sun of the early-morning light, "Have you ever seen it? All that random terror that goes on everywhere? Theft, robbery, even murder is all a part of ours lives at one point or another. When we rise to power, however, that's all going to change once Team Rocket comes to po-"

"Are you even listening to yourself?"

_Click cli-_

Both Proton and Archer looked up at Arella, surprised at her sudden outburst.

"You're going to reduce random crime by giving rise to organized crime? It'll make a difference to you, sure, but that'll just make everyone else's lives even worse! Why don't you get your head out of your arsehole and actually look around for once!"

Archer simply stared at the trainer, then looked over at Proton. He nodded, Proton nodded back, and the admin put his knife away in exchange for a radio, turning it on.

"Kill one of 'em," he spoke into it.

"Which one?" the staticy reply came from the radio.

"Don't care, just one of them."

"Aye sir."

"No. . ." Arella simply stared at Proton as he left the radio on, static filling the room until a single gunshot silenced it, the admin turning the radio off right after.

"You said, you Arceus damn bastard!" she yelled at Archer, "You said they'd be fine!"

"I said they'd be fine if you let me speak," Archer stated flatly, "And you didn't."

He turned to Proton, nodded again, and walked off. The sound of metal doors opening could be heard, then the sound of them closing and an elevator going down, leaving the shaking trainer alone with the Rocket Admin, who got his knife back out.

_Click, click_


	39. Chapter 38: The Receiving End

"Who knows what the hell they're doing to her."

Matthew's eyes snapped open as soon as those words were spoken and was greeted by a grim sight of cell bars a good 7 yard in front of him as he lay at the back of the cell. He was also greeted by the faces of his teammates: Harris standing near the front, smoking, Elizabeth sitting on the right side, Hana and Alucard on the left, and then Daniel standing in the middle, all of them with some kind of worried expression on their face.

". . .What happened?" Matthew finally asked.

Daniel sighed, "They got us in the underground tunnel. By the time we came out, they already got you and Arella. . .there was nothing we could do."

"And judging by what we heard after, they took the gym by surprise too. Probably didn't even stand a chance," Elizabeth looked away.

"Have you guys tried busting out?" Matthew suggested.

"You see those rock chunks on the floor," Harris raised an eyebrow, "Yeah. That used to be part of me. So yes, we have tried getting out, but these things won't budge," he hit the bars, making a metallic noise that rung through the hallway.

"Guys, someone's coming," Hana hissed, and they all fell completely silent as the sound of trudging boots came closer and closer until a rocket guard was standing right in front of their cell.

"Which one?" he spoke into the radio as he looked around at all of them.

"Don't care, just one of them," the staticy reply came back.

"Aye sir," he kept the radio up with one hand, and then every pokemon in the cell cringed when they saw him pull out a gun with his other hand. His eyes swept over the entire fear-stricken team until it finally rested on one of them, and he lifted up his gun so it fire directly into Elizabeth's face, but still the entire cell remained completely silent.

_BANG_

Not surprisingly, everyone eyes closed instinctively at the sudden loud noise, yet the only other sound they heard was the sound of the man yelling in pain, making everyone's eyes open back up in curiosity. The gun had gone off all right, 3 inches to the left of her face. The looked back the guy just in time to see a couple more razor sharp leaves imbed themselves into his chest.

They all rushed forward, only to be greeted by the sight of Silver, his Meganium next to him. Other guards rushed forward, only to meet the same feet of the bleeding guard on the floor.

"Worthless grunts," Silver muttered, kicking one of them before looking back at the cell and noticing Arella's pokemon.

"Yeah, that's Silver all right," Matthew sighed, "And I'm not entirely sure whether I should be happy or not."

". . .What are you guys doing here?"

"What do you think we're doing here?" Daniel raised an eyebrow.

"Did Arella seriously loose to a bunch of grunts?" he laughed.

"No, we got ambushed," Hana corrected him, "If we hadn't, we would have already taken care of Team Rocket like. . .an hour ago."

"So where is Arella then?"

"Don't know," Elizabeth shrugged.

"Seriously."

"Do we look like we're kidding?" Harris asked, "She could be dead for all the hell we know."

Silver twitched slightly , then shook his head.

"Weaklings," he started walking away, "Come on, let's go."

"Wait."

He stopped, and looked back at Matthew as everyone else did.

"If they're keeping her, she's probably with the boss. So if you let us out, we can help you beat the rockets and we get Arella back. It's a win-win"

"I have plently of pokemon. I don't need your help," Silver turned back around.

"_Really_?" his Meganium looked at him with a skeptical look, "Because last time I checked I'm your last pokemon left who's in any decent fighting shape."

Silver remained silent, then sighed, rolling his eyes as he turned back around.

"Okay, I might need your help," he grumbled, stealing a ring of keys off of one of the guards bodies and using it to open the cell door, "But I'm in charge, go it?"

". . .Can I propose something first?" Alucard asked.

"I'm listening."

* * *

She couldn't believe. She had failed again, not soon after Arella had gone down. She should have never shown him that tunnel. But then again, after how fast they attacked after words, it was like they already knew about the tunnel and had planned the attack from the start. But that didn't matter anymore. What mattered now was that every single person in that gym were now crowded into cells, and all of them completely silent.

". . .How is she?" Whitney finally spoke to the girl looking over Kelly, who lay on the cold concrete floor shivering and obviously in pain.

"She's getting worse. There's no way in hell she's going to make it," she shook her head, and the gym leader bit her lip.

How the hell could this get any worse?

That's when she noticed an odd sight near the ceiling of the tunnel that the cell was connected to. A Crobat was carrying a Jumpluff across the hall, and the Jumpluff seemed to be spreading some kind of green spore. . .

And then she got it.

"Guys," she whispered to the rest of her cell mates, "Cover you face with something, and pass the message on to the others."

The word quickly spread to the other cells, just in time for the guards who hadn't even noticed the green pollen to start getting woozy before a long strand of thuds sounded. As soon as they were over, the Crobat and Jumpluff flew back over to her cell with a key.

"Thanks," Whitney nodded, grabbing the key off of them and quickly trying to open the door from the front side.

"You don't remember me?" The Jumpluff pouted.

She looked up and down the Jumpluff, then slowly shook her head.

"I was the Skiploom that Arella used to poison your Milktank during the gym battle! Remember?"

". . .You're Arella's pokemon?"

"Yeah, I'm Hana and he's Alucard and-"

"Where's Arella?"

Alucard frowned, "We don't know, but we need your help."

"For what?"

"We're going to start a retaliation against Team Rocket!" Hana smiled.


	40. Chapter 39: It Just Marches On

_He had completely forgotten what a normal life felt like. His time as a right hand to Giovanni in Team Rocket had blinded him of what bliss was really like._

_Archer had been living at his brothers for a couple months now and he had a steady job with pretty good pay. But more importantly, he was satisfied. Happy. Some thing he hadn't felt in quite a while even with almost all the power in the world._

_"Mornin' Arch."_

_He looked up from his breakfast to see Brandon come into the Kitchen and get his own breakfast._

_"Morning," he nodded, "I heard you got scolded again for playing M games at your friend's house."_

_He grumbled, "Don't remind me." He plopped down onto the chair directly across from him at the table, making a loud 'thud' as he did, "It's just a game anyways, it's not like Team Rocket exists anymore anyways."_

_Archer twitched slightly at the mention of Team Rocket._

_"And Team Rocket really didn't do that much either. I mean, they just stole stuff and-"_

_"And massacred entire towns and made pokemon fight to their own demise in ring battles for money and constantly blackmailed everyone," Archer finished for him, "And that was just the grunts."_

_Brandon stared at him wide eyed._

_". . .How do you know all that?"_

_The former Rocket member bit his lip, then looked around before whispering._

_"Your parents aren't home, right?"_

_"Yeah, they're both at work and won't be back for a while. Why?"_

_He sighed, "Once upon a time, I was Giovanni's right-hand man."_

_Silence._

_"You're kidding. . .right?"_

_"No, I'm not," he sipped his coffee, "And I'm most definitely not proud of it either. I was his longest lasting assistant, and I went through the worst."_

_"What do you mean 'longest lasting'?"_

_"No one was safe from Giovanni's wrath in Team Rocket. There'd be constant executions of members who were falling behind to make sure that no one would cross him. He was especially stringent with personal assistants, since they handled all the important stuff. The one before me didn't even last two weeks before he went six-feet under. Sometimes one of them would get lucky, usually the girls, but there was always a big price to pay."_

_"Do my parents. . ." Brandon trailed off._

_"Your dad does, your mom doesn't thankfully," he looked back up at Brandon, "Makes sure it stays that way."_

_"Only if you tell me more later."_

* * *

_Click click_

How long had she been up here? She didn't even know herself, but it must have been a while now because the sun was now a good distance above the distant mountains. It must have only been an hour or two, but for her it felt like years.

_Click click_

And it really didn't help that Proton decided to play with his knife every couple of seconds. Arceus, that was starting to get annoying.

She looked to the side, grumbling to herself about how she was going to murder Proton once she got out of here when she noticed something on the floor. Not two feet away from her was a set of keys, simply lying on the ground as if they had just grown legs and walked over here.

She looked around, but the room was still empty besides the ever annoying Proton. But Proton would still be a problem, and even if she somehow did take care of Proton there'd still be a million more grunts waiting for her somewhere.

_Click click_

As soundlessly as she could, she leaned over slightly to grab the keys. Setting a rough plan in her head, she proceeded to open the handcuff around her right hand just enough so she could slip her hand out easily.

Step 2: Irritate the shit out of Proton.

"Can you stop clicking you knife every two seconds? It's bad enough that I'm already stuck here, and you're just making it worse," Arella grumbled.

Proton shot a glare at her direction, "_What_did you say?"

"You heard me the first time," she shrugged, trying to looked bored. Secretly, she was scared out of her freaking mind, but she had to remain calm for her plan to work. Well, at least kinda calm.

He sighed, folding his arms, "You do realize I can kill you at any second, right?"

"If you wanted to kill me you would have done it already."

Proton paused, and Arella took that time to thank Arceus that her sister had gotten her into mystery novels.

"What are you even doing here anyways? Archer was talking about stopping random crime, and you seem to be pretty into it."

He seemed to be pretty pissed now, his face turning red in anger.

"You don't know shit about anything," he spat at me, walking closer.

Just a little more. . .

"Really now? I don't know shit about random crime? It's called life."

Bingo.

Step 3: Pray to Arceus this all works out

Proton opened his mouth to say something out of pure rage and spite of me, and that's when Arella decided to rush forward. His words never left his mouth as he stepped back, trying to get away. He reacted too slow though, and she landed a kick right where it counted.

It wasn't long before he was curled into a fetal position on the floor, cursing with a vocabulary so colorful she didn't even know some of the words could be _used_as colorful words. She didn't have time though, so she ran to the elevator as fast as she could.

All her hopes were shattered right there as a key card slot stared her straight into the face.

"Oh Arceus no. . ." the words slipped out of her mouth as she stared helplessly at the elevator door. It wasn't long before Proton was back up again, and he grabbed her arm, then pushed her back so she crashed into the elevator doors before bringing her arm up so high behind her it felt like her shoulder was popping out.

"It's funny how Archer was so insistent that I couldn't kill you," he said quietly as Arella's breathing turned frantic. "Of course, that doesn't mean I can't make you wish you were dead."

Arella screamed.

And Outside the observatory, time went on.


	41. Chapter 40: Behind You

". . .What exactly are we waiting for again?"

The Meganium's quiet whisper sounded more like a shout in the deathly quiet abandoned house they were occupying, making every other pokemon/person jump and near freak out.

"We're waiting for you to shut up," Harris glared.

"We're waiting for the rockets to realize that you guys are gone and send most of their troops out of the Radio Tower," Silver corrected the Sudowoodo in a harsh tone as he checked out the door again, "Now stop trying to pick fights with each other or I'll send you all back to your balls."

Harris grumbled, for he knew it was a valid threat. They had found the room where they had put all of Arella's stuff, including her pokeball belt, so he could technically recall them all back if he wanted to.

"Do you think this'll actually work?" Elizabeth asked quietly.

"You guys thought up of the plan. You better pray to Arceus it works," the red-headed trainer sighed, checking outside again before drawing his head back in and closing the door as quickly as he could.

"They're out," he explained before anyone could even ask the question swimming in their minds.

"How long now?" Daniel turned to him.

"A couple minutes, max, though sometimes it depends on who's giving orders."

". . .How do you know all this?"

Meganium rolled his eyes, "He actually did some research before we went in here, unlike you guys who probably just charged in."

"We _did_ have a plan," Matthew corrected him.

"Well it was a terrible plan if you guys got captured by Team Rocket."

Silver glared at both Meganium and Matthew before turning around to peek out the door again.

"They're gone," he whispered as he looked back at the pokemon in the room.

"So what do we do now?" Daniel asked.

He took a deep breath, "You guys stay quiet and trust me."

All 4 of Arella's pokemon stared at each other quizzically before near sprinting to catch up with both Silver and his Meganium, who were already near the entrance to the Radio Tower.

Inside was deathly quiet, and the only way on could tell that it had even taken it over was the receptionist's 'scared-to-death' expression and the lone Team Rocket grunt that stood by the staircase. His serious expression somehow lit up when he saw Silver walking towards him.

"So, Archer isn't a crazy hoot after all. He really is coming back," he grinned, "Where is your old man anyways?"

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you," the red-headed trainer folded his arms, not amused.

"Ha, sounds like him," he shook his head, still smiling and letting Silver and the rest of the pokemon pass up the staircase and onto an empty second floor.

"What the hell was **that**?" Matthew demanded as they stopped on the empty floor.

"I told you guys to trust me," Silver sighed, observing the floor, "I'll explain later, but for right now we can't waste anytime. . .and there's two ways up."

"We split up then?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yeah. . ." he took another look at both staircases before facing the pokemon again, "You three, up the left staircase," he gestured to Elizabeth, Daniel, and Harris, "And the rest with me."

* * *

"I still have no idea what to think of him. Sometimes he's decent and sometimes he's a complete jerk."

"You're starting to sound like Arella."

Elizabeth smiled at Daniel as they ascended the stairs, Harris silently following behind.

"Well, when you're with her for so long, she kinda rubs off on you," she nodded.

Both descended into an awkward silence as they reached the top of the stairs, the sound of an old man yelling greeting them.

"I don't care! Team Rocket's will lead us into the glory days, so it's our job to provide them with our radio waves! Oh don't worry about the viewer ratings, they'll come around eventually!"

He slammed the phone down on the receiver, sighing as he buried his face in hands for a couple seconds. He then looked up and noticed the three pokemon staring right at him.

"What?" he demanded.

"Umm. . .we were. . .uh. . .just wondering where Arella was," Elizabeth stammered, trading glances with Daniel once in a while.

"Oh, she's up in-" he stopped himself before thinking for a moment and standing up "Waaaiiit a minute."

"Look, Petrel," Harris said, walking forward so he was in front of Daniel and Elizabeth, "You can tell us where Arella is now, or we can pummel your entire team to a pulp and you'll tell us where he is anyways."

". . .How did you know it was me?"

"Hard to forget the stupid ones," he grinned.

Petrel glared at him, "You're going to regret that. Koffing, Selfdestruct"

"What Kof-" Daniel started to say, but stopped short when he saw it in his peripheral vision behind him, and by the time he turned around, it had exploded, sending all three pokemon flying as dust and debris flew everywhere.


	42. Chapter 41: One Last Look

The high-strung tension in the air made the couple minute wait seem like eons as the dust slowly settled. Even when nearly settled one couldn't see anything on the floor of the room, so more eons passed.

Finally, a cough, and a slow rising of a figure that disturbed the dust around him. It looked around before calling, "You guys still alive?"

Harris's voice rang through the dusty room, and was finally met with some more coughs, then the hoarse reply of "I'm alive." Daniel coughed a couple times more before adding, "Barely."

Eons of silence. It didn't take long for the Pidgeot to stop coughing and call, "Elizabeth! Where are you?"

More silence, before the faint reply, "Over. . .here. . ."

Both Harris and Daniel rushed towards the voice, but what they found wasn't exactly what they were hoping.

Elizabeth was there, but it looked like she wouldn't for long. Her lower abdomen was crushed by the debris, along with a single stone piece that used to belong to the wall was now sticking out of her chest as blood flowed from the wound as fast as a waterfall.

". . .Daniel? Are you. . .there?" she asked, not being able to see due to the layers of dust that came to rest upon her eyes and her injuries not allowing her to shake it off.

"Yeah. . .I'm here. . ." he got closer, leaning over the Beedrill. He tried to sound optimistic as if he knew she would survive, but even he knew the chances were slim to none.

More silence, before Daniel broke it again.

"Elizabeth. . .I. . .I need to tell you something. . ." he looked down, "I-"

"I. . .know. . .already," she managed to give him a tiny smile, "You don't. . .have to. . .say it."

"I was a coward. . ."

"A coward. . .runs away. . .from his fears. You. . .worked with them. And it seems. . .your fears. . .were right."

She coughed, making her loose even more blood as it stained the debris keeping her down.

"Keep strong. . .Daniel. Arella. . .still needs. . .your. . .help."

Daniel dusted off one of her eyes, giving her a clear look at the Pidgeot right before her head slumped, and the room started to feel empty. Both Harris and Daniel simply stood there for a while, staring at the dead Beedrill before the Sudowoodo turned around. The bird pokemon expected him to head down the stairs, but instead he headed towards the desk, where he pulled Petrel out from under and slammed him against a wall.

"I was going to let you off with just your pokemon taking a beat," Harris shook the rocket admin as his voice radiated a dark tone, "But Arceus damn that was one of my teammates you just killed. So now you have to three to either fess up where the hell our trainer is or I'll beat you so Arceus damn hard you'll make a nice poster. One."

Petrel looked around frantically, trying to find something that might save him.

"Two."

Nothing.

"Three."

"All right all right!" he raised up his hands, "Your trainer is up in the observation deck on the top of this tower," the admin dug through his pocket before producing a key, "You'll need this to get in."

Harris sighed, taking the key and letting him go, then watching Petrel scurry off like a rat just released from a trap. He shook his head before going back to Daniel.

"Do you need a bit?" The Sudowoodo asked.

He took the Pidgeot's silent reply as a 'yes', then threw something at him, nearly hitting him in the process. Before he even had time to ask, Harris answered for him.

"Elizabeth's pokeball, in case you decide to come join us."

". . .Thank you," he finally spoke, nodding to him.

"No problem," he nodded back, "We're teammates after all."

"Friends," Daniel corrected him, "We're. . .friends."

". . .I guess I like the ring of that" he grinned, then walked back down the stairs.

* * *

"No. . ."

Arianna collapsed to her knees as she continued to stare at her unmoving Vileplume, her last pokemon, which was no match for the party that consisted of Matthew and Meganium, with Silver giving commands. The Feraligatr did come to recognize the redhead's skill for strategy, but still didn't like the way he trained.

"Where's your leader?" Silver asked as he walked between the two fully-evolved starters, his voice icy.

"Straight to the point then?" she smiled weakly, looking up at him, "He's up that elevator to the observation deck," she gestured to the elevator near by, "But you need a special key, and I don't have it. . ."

"Well then who does?" Meganium barked.

"Petrel."

All four of them turned to the stairs they had come up to see Harris walking in, smoking as usual as he held something in his hand.

"Had a nice little run with him on the other set of stairs. Threatened to beat him to a pulp and he handed it over and scurried off like a rat," he shrugged, holding up the key.

". . .What about Daniel and Elizabeth?"

"Daniel's still down there. . .with Elizabeth. He'll be up eventually."

Matthew looked down, and Silver spoke up again.

"Look, down two members or no, we need to get up there **now**. The sooner we get up there the more we have the element of surprise on our side."

"And the less Arella might be hurt," Harris added.

They all nodded and started to head for the elevator before Arianna spoke up.

"You. . .You're his kid, aren't you?"

The red-head turned sharply to face her. They simply stared at each other for a while before he replied, "Might be, but I think he disowned me somewhere down the line."


	43. Chapter 42: Uprising

"So they didn't even bother taking your guy's pokemon?" Hana asked, amazed.

"They were all out of commission anyways, so they didn't even bother," Whitney shook her head as her and the rest of the occupants of the gym ran down the hallway, which was filled with sleeping Team Rocket grunts.

"Well, is there anyway to the pokemon center from here then?" Alucard looked down.

The gym leader thought for a bit, finally replying, "Just around this corner, there should be a secret entrance to the back room of the pokemon center."

"What's with all the secret tunnels and entrances and all that anyways?"

"You think this is the first time Goldenrod's been under siege?" Whitney laughed, "This city is a vulnerable as they come, so they made all these tunnels in case an attack like this happened again. 'Course, the last attack happened back when my great-grandpa was my age, so not many people remember these tunnels exist anymore."

She stopped, making the entire crowd stop as well in a fairly small dead end. She felt around the quite low ceiling until one of the ceiling tiles moved easily. She moved it aside, revealing the bright lights the came from the other side of the hole.

"We'll go up first," Hana told Whitney, smiling, "We'll clear the area around the healing machine and then get the rest of the building while you guys heal your pokemon."

"Hurry up," Whitney nodded, "One of my girls needs medical attention, and I'm not sure how bad she is."

Both pokemon nodded back and flew up through the hole.

It did indeed lead to the back room of the pokemon center, as Whitney said, right behind the counter and thankfully away from the watchful eye of any patrolling Team Rocket grunts. However, they were under the eye of one of the nurses that happened to be back there.

"What are you doing here?" she asked quietly, her gaze shifting between the two pokemon and the hole they came from.

"We came to take the pokemon center back from Team Rocket!" Hana announced, but in a whisper.

"Well you came up at the right spot. We told them we'd go down without a fight if they left the back room alone," she sighed, her gaze finally resting on the hole, ". . .How many people are down there?"

"About the entire Goldenrod Gym's worth," Alucard replied, "None of them have any usable pokemon right now though, and one's of them is injured."

"Bring her up then! We don't have much back here, but it's better than nothing."

Neither pokemon needed to relay the message to the people below, for not long after they had gotten Nikki up, Whitney following her.

"We're going to clear the front room," Hana whispered as the nurse started looking over the girl, "We shouldn't be long!"

Whitney nodded again at the two pokemon and watched as they flew out to the front before turning back to the nurse.

"Anything yet?" she asked meekly.

"No. Has anything happened to her recently that might have caused this?"

"No, not really. . ."

"No injuries recently? The symptoms speak of infection."

"Um. . .we've been renovating our gym recently, and I believe she got scratched a couple days ago."

"Do you remember what it was?"

"No. . ."

"Where was it?"

". . .Her upper right arm."

Wasting no time, the nurse quickly pulled up her sleeve to be greeted by a giant, pus-filled mess

"It is infection. She didn't dress it properly and it got dirty."

Whitney sighed in relief, "So, it was nothing Team Rocket did?"

The nurse's gaze snapped up to the gym leader, "What do you mean by that?"

She looked away, "We sent her to the pokemon mart in hopes of getting some items because we were on our last legs. She was the only who could go because her dad's the owner of the mart, so she knows the place like the back of her hand."

The nurse opened her mouth to comment how stupid that was, but both of their attentions turned to the multiple thumping noises that came from the front. Curious, they both went up to the front room.

Any rocket grunts that were unfortunately caught in the front room at the time were now sleeping soundly on the floor. And any part of the floor that wasn't occupied by sleeping grunts was covered in a thing layer of green-colored pollen.

"Oh hey guys," Hana smiled, greeting them as she stood on the counter next to Alucard "You might wanna cover your-"

*Thud**Thud*

"noses. . ."

~

_It had been almost a year now. He had a great job, still lived with his brother's family, and was slowly becoming closer with his nephew. Most of all, he was still free of his rocket past, though he was still being cautious._

Of course, if he knew his perfect little world would have been ruined that day, he might have thought a little differently.

He had taken Brandon out for some Ice cream to celebrate his team winning the soccer game that his parents unfortunately couldn't attend due to work, and we're walking back, talking about all the highlights of the game. But, the closer they got back to their home on top of the hill, the more they realized something was off. The smoke coming out from the house didn't help either, but Archer had figured that the parents had come home real quick, had a nice cozy fire going, and left without remembering to put it out.

At least, he hoped they had left when he realized just what it was. Somehow, Brandon had figured it out before, and had broken out into a dead run, his uncle following close behind.

It was thankfully still small, but fire was slowly eating away at the house's wooden structure. Rushing inside only made the matters worse, for they had found his brother and his wife, dead on the ground with two men standing over them. It almost seemed they were completely fixed on the two dead bodies before them, but quickly noticed the two new-comers.

"Thought you could hide forever Archer?" one of them grinned, pointing a gun at them, "Thought you could go back to a normal life when the rest of us had to suffer?"

The first shot missed anything important, but still struck the former assistant to Giovanni in the arm, making him clutch it.

"You could have gone down alone, but now you're taking your whole family with you."

He never got that second shot, and was struck down by something. The partner went down soon after, screaming as his entrails were slowly eaten by a Houndoom that came out a seemingly no where, plus a little Houndour puppy that had apparently followed it.

It was too much for Brandon: The death of his parents, his uncle being shot, and then the wails of the two assailants being eaten alive. He screamed, dropping to his knees and clutching his head, his uncle wrapping his good arm around him as he did.

The Houndoom came up, nudging a bloody nose against Archer. It was then he noticed the collar, and a slip of paper wedge between the dog's fur and the collar. Taking it out, he read it silently to himself, and his face hardened.

"Come on Brandon," he said as he got up.

"Come on?" he shot a glare at him, "My parents are fucking dead! What about the police and all that?"

"The police won't be able to help," he shook his head.

"How. . .How do you know that?"

He produced the piece of paper in front of his nephew's face, letting him read it.

"Giovanni sent these men. The only way we're going to lure him back out is if we bring Team Rocket back."


	44. Chapter 43: Fall

"What part of 'do not even **touch** him' did you not understand?"

"Archer, he tried to fucking escape! What else was I supposed to do? Let him roam around the Arceus damn place and/or try to kill me again?"

Archer sighed, looking out to Goldenrod through the observatory's windows, then shifting his gaze back to his nephew.

"You better thank Arceus I came up before you did anything too irrational. If he died, not only would we have Giovanni to contend with, but the entirety of the League. Do you not remember he's on the same side as _Lance_?"

Proton grumbled, muttering under his breath but still realizing his uncle had a very valid point. That didn't last long though, as both admins heard the elevator starting up on its on through the near dead silence.

"It looks like we have company. . ." Archer bit his lip as he pulled out a pokeball, Proton doing the same.

Finally, a ding, and the elevator doors slowly opened, revealing Silver, his Meganium, Matthew, and Harris. At the sight though, the Rocket boss's grim expression turned warm.

"Well, what do you know? I was expecting Giovanni to be here, and instead I got his son."

"Do you really think I came in league with my dad?" Silver laughed as all 4 of them walked out of the elevator. "Trust me, if I knew where the hell the old man was, I would have killed him a long time ago."

"And you two," he turned to Matthew and Harris, "Arella's pokemon, right? You're not surprised from the secret he's kept from you?"

"He explained on the way up," the Feraligatr cracked his knuckles.

"And we find you two more of a threat than him," Harris spat out the cigarette in his mouth.

"Very well then," Archer shook his head and sent out a Houndoom while Proton sent out a Golbat.

"Oh come on. . ." Silver's Meganium grumbled, but Silver simply smiled.

"You stay on support. You'll be of more use there than getting yourself killed fighting against two pokemon that are super-effective against you" the red-head turned to Arella's pokemon, "You two should be able to take care of them yourselves, right?"

Both of them nodded, then charged: Harris at the Golbat and Matthew at the Houndoom, while Meganium stayed back setting up Light Screen and Reflect.

"So the grunts. . .Do they even know?" Silver asked, as the battle ensued.

Matthew pulled back a little as the Houndoom tried to retaliate, but it still managed to latch on to his arm with its powerful jaws.

"Of course not. They think we're trying to get Giovanni out because we want to restore glory to Team Rocket," Proton grinned.

He used his other arm, pried the Houndoom off and then threw him across the room. It went sliding, but was quickly up again and ran at the Feraligatr at near blinding speeds.

"The admins too?"

Harris saw the Golbat swooping down at him. He tried to hit it as it came down ,but it simply flew out of the way and swooped at him from another angle, biting down, but letting go quickly and flying off again.

"No, they don't know a thing either," Archer answered this time.

The Sudowoodo clutched where the Golbat had bit him, realizing he had injected him with poison. However, a sweet smell filled the room, making the pain almost instantly go away. Looking up, he saw Meganium smiling at him, and Harris smiled back.

"And tell me how the hell you planned on killing my old man. You realize he wouldn't be dumb enough to just come up here alone and expect you guys to quickly relinquish your power."

The Golbat noticed what had happened between the Meganium and Harris, and quickly changed targets, swooping in for a full speed tackle at the grass starter and managed to knock her over. Before she could manage to get up, the Golbat has already sank its fangs into her. Harris managed to get over there fast and pull the bat off, throwing him against the window. The thick glass cracked at the force of the throw, and it slid down to the ground where it moved no more. Unfortunately, Meganium was already in no shape to fight, so Silver called her back.

"And do you honestly think we're dumb enough to tell you? You really could be working with Giovanni for all the hell we know."

The Houdoom's attack at Matthew had left him with three big scratch marks on his belly that bled slowly, but he scratched back and got his eye in the process. It howled in pain as it tried to open its scratched eye but couldn't. It also then realized that the Golbat had been taken out, and charged at Harris, his body producing flames as it did.

"You should know yourself that anyone somewhat related to a mob boss doesn't last long, so I cut off all ties with him."

Harris never saw the flaming tackle coming, and soon joined the Golbat he just downed on the wall. The attack itself hadn't done much, but he was left burned and couldn't find the strength to get up.

"I did too, and look where I ended up: right back as a criminal."

Matthew, enraged, charged at the Houndoom again. But the dog saw it coming, and used the leverage of the wall to beat the brute force of the Feraligatr. He went flying as well, crashing into the inner wall and cracking it. As Archer's pokemon slowly went in for the kill, Matthew found it near impossible to get up.

"Oh, would you look at that," Archer smile when he saw the scene playing out. "I believe this is when you dad would say 'Check and mate'."

"No," Silver corrected him, "That's when he would imply it."

A window shattered, and suddenly the Houndoom was down. On top of it was Daniel, one talon sinking into the Houndoom's skin while the other clutched a pokeball.

Both Archer and Proton went mute, both fearing the worst to come at the hands of Giovanni's son.

"You know, I could kill you right now," he sighed, "But I try to make it a rule to do everything my dad would hate," he stepped aside "So go."

". . .Just like that?" Archer asked.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" he raised an eyebrow, "Go, before I change my mind."

He didn't need to say it twice, and soon the elevator was occupied again and heading down.

"So glad you could make it" Matthew smiled weakly at Daniel, and Daniel smiled back.

"I had a feeling something would go wrong if I missed the party" Daniel looked around, "Now where-"

The other 3 occupants of the room remained silent, until the red-head broke it.

"You can walk, right?" Silver asked Matthew as he leaned against the central wall.

"Yeah. . ." Matthew nodded slowly.

"Good, because Arella's way too heavy for me."


	45. Chapter 44: The Reason

"Matthew, right?"

Sitting on one of the many benches littered around the pokemon center, the Feraligatr snapped away from his distance gaze so that his eyes met with the pink-haired girl in front of him: Whitney. They kept their silent gaze going for a while; Matthew's tired and hazy while the gym leader's was wide and curious. Finally, he nodded, and the girl plopped down on the bench next to him.

"None of the nurses will tell me how Arella's doing. . .I know I probably shouldn't probe, but I'm curious." she sighed, leaning forward so her elbows rested on her knees and her face on her hands. "The only thing I've heard is from people that saw you bring her in, and they say it's really bad."

"That's an understatement."

Whitney's gaze snapped to Matthew again, surprised to hear him speak after remaining silent this entire time.

"There are bruises all over his body," he explained, his gaze wandering, "And one of the admins decided to use his back as a carving board with his knife. They say it'll almost definitely scar over, so he'll always have a reminder of what happened, whatever happened."

It took a while for the gym leader's brain to register that Matthew had finished speaking and the fact that she was staring wide-eyed and mouth opened. She turned away quickly, her gaze wandering as well from embarrassment.

"Did. . .did they get them?" she finally asked.

"No, they got away scott-free," he sighed, "I'd go after them and rip them limb to limb, but that'd make me no better than then." His expression changed for a minute, but before Whitney could figure out what it was it changed back to his stern face that he was wearing before.

Not sure what else to do, Whitney's gaze wandered around a little more before she finally realized something, and quickly turned back to the looming Feraligatr.

"What happened to that Pidgeot that was with you?"

"He's up north. . .burying his love."

Whitney's face soured, angry at herself for asking about another touchy subject, though Matthew didn't seem to notice.

"The rest of the team is up there with him. I volunteered to stay behind and make sure Arella if okay, is he'll ever be okay."

"He'll be okay."

It was Matthew's turn to be surprised, turning his head to the pink-haired girl as she offered him a tiny smile.

"He may not ever fully recover from whatever happened up there, but he has you guys. I've never seen a team of pokemon care so much for their trainer as I've seen with him. He'll get better eventually, but he needs an example of how to be strong before that happens."

She stood up, brushing the non-existent dust off of her shorts before turning to Matthew again.

"I gotta go, but remember what I said."

He nodded again, watching her run off before his eyes went wide with realization.

"Whitney?"

The gym leader stopped, turning around with her curious gaze.

"Arella isn't the same person he used to be. . .you can blame that partly on myself. . ."

* * *

A familiar white plane, yet no familiar face to greet her. Hell, this was the first time she had woken up on the plane alone, without Ellen to greet her. She was all alone in the endless field of white, and Arella started to feel small without the presence of that Pikachu girl.

The silence that weight heavy on the plane suddenly disappeared, replaced with a sobbing that sounded far away, and almost sounded like Ellen. . .If she was here somewhere, she would never find her among the endless white.

"Ellen?" she called out and waited. Minutes passed by with no answer, so she tried again. After a couple more tries, getting louder every time, she finally got a reply.

". . .Arella?" came the faint voice of Ellen, soft and broken.

"Ellen?" she called again, "Where are you?"

"Over. . .here."

The white plane suddenly twisted, morphing into another shape while splashes of color made a canvas of the eternal white. Finally, it settled down, the product a place that she had visited once before: The peak of Mt. Silver.

Yet, the majestic sight it might have created with the snow covered peaks was ruined by the bloody mess of at least a dozen bodies, the snow stained red all around them. In front of them was Ellen, sitting on the snow as she sobbed into he drawn up knees.

"I'm sorry you had to see this, but I'm stuck here now," she lifted her head up a little bit, just enough to show her tear-stained eyes.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean she cursed me!" she wailed, "Forever to look at the lives I could've saved if I wasn't too preoccupied with my mission!" she buried her face into her knees again.

". . .Who's 'she'?"

Ellen didn't answer for a while, instead trying to control her sobbing so that she could talk and actually have the human understand her. Finally, she replied, "The reason you're here."

She didn't have time to ask anymore questions, for her body suddenly froze while a purple aura surrounded her, as if she was trapped in a very stiff, un-popable bubble.

"So this is the girl I've heard so much about. I'm surprised you could even get her here, with that box of yours," a distorted voice behind her stated, a hint of superiority in her voice. Ellen sharply turned around, and fear struck her like lightning before her face hardened.

"Let her go."

"I don't even get a hello? Such a shame, I was thinking about letting you join our side."

"Arceus is the only Arceus, no matter the lies you spew about him or that stupid bug," the Pikachu's gaze narrowed.

"'That stupid bug' also turned the tide on our little war. How does it feel to be trapped in a little box day in and day out, with no hope of escaping? Feels terrible, doesn't it?"

"Shut up!" she screamed, getting up to run at the voice, but an invisible wall bounced her back, knocking her back to the ground.

"Don't even bother sweetie. That little box of yours isn't going to open anytime soon. By the way, did you have a fun time watching her suffer? I orchestrated the entire thing, though it's a shame you got to her memories before she could actually remember anything. I was looking forward to seeing how she dealt with it after it was all said and done." Arella could feel the voice lean in to her ear and whisper, "How does it feel to know every step of the way I'm trying to break you?"

Ellen was really pissed now, hitting the invisible wall in front of her with her hand. Purple energy went flying everywhere as she forced her palm through, seemingly taking all of her effort to get it through. Finally, she broke through, and the purple bubble around Arella turned pink, and quickly she was flying down the sheer mountainside, falling as she had every single dream she had had with that girl, whoever she was.


	46. Chapter 45: News

He assured them that - with a display like that - they would be dead by the hour. It was the only way to calm them down and keep Arella's pokemon from going after the two Rocket admins, but for once it was the truth.

There lay the horribly mutilated bodies that used to be Proton and Archer, right beside the Forest shrine too. Whoever dispatched of them really didn't know how to respect the legendaries. Even his dad learned the hard way that you really had to stay on legendary's good sides, no matter how powerful you think you are.

And it was never a good idea to try making one yourself. _Ever_.

Speaking of the devil, Silver's gaze averted from the bodies when he noticed a movement in the shadows of the thick forest. Though, his surprised expression quickly melted into a scowl when he realized who it was.

"I thought I said I didn't want to see you until you lying in your coffin."

A man stepped out of the shadows, with a black trench-coat and a fedora, as if he was an Italian Mobster. Because he was, and Giovanni could pull off the look quite well.

The weird thing was, Giovanni didn't speak. Instead, his voice came out in a near inaudible whisper.

"What am _I_ doing here?" Silver retorted to whatever Giovanni's remark was, as if he had said whatever he had said in a nice, clear voice. "I was taking care of Team Rocket. You should have guessed that yourself."

Giovanni whispered something again, looking down at his bodies.

"Yeah, those are Archer and his nephew. Pretty good for getting this far without anyone noticing their true motives, but I don't think he has the same quality of hearing like he used to, so you didn't loose much trying to kill him."

The former Team Rocket leader looked back up at Silver, confused.

"You didn't try to kill him at any time?" the red-head looked back at the bodies, "Well, I guess that kinda makes sense. If you wanted him dead, you would have killed him a long time ago," he shook his head, sighing as he did before looking back up at his dad, "How about you humor me and tell me who did? Was it the League? Another person trying to reclaim your power? Someone else entirely?"

As Giovanni spoke, Silver's expression slowly melted into pure horror.

"Oh no no no no. Fuck no. I thought that thing was killed by Red 3 years ago."

Giovanni looked down.

"Red's dead too? **And** Blue? You have got to fucking kidding me" he bit his lip, looking away before looking back and asking, "Any possibility you know who its next target is?"

His dad looked him straight in the eye.

". . .Fuck no."

* * *

"It's getting late. . ."

Daniel remained silent at Harris's comment, his gaze fixed on the makeshift grave that lay before him.

"A little longer. . ." the Pidgeot finally replied, looking down at the stinger that had once belonged to Elizabeth, but now hung from a string on his neck, sighing.

Harris bit his lip, trying to keep any complaint or other sarcastic remark to himself. He had said the same thing roughly two hours ago, and it really was starting to get late. The sun was just barely peaking over the tall trees that surrounded them, throwing its last bit of light just past the grave as it slowly sank down. But, the girl he was morning was his one true love, and what did he know about loosing anything that important. The only thing he had ever really lost was his ability to put up with certain types of humans.

"Why'd you lie to her?"

The question came out of the blue; surprising Daniel and making him stare at Harris for a minute. They locked gazes before the bird turned back around to face the grave again.

"It could have been me back there. . ." he stated softly, but still loud enough for the Sudowoodo to hear.

"Hm?"

"I could have died back there instead of her, and we'd be in completely opposite places and probably a lot more miserable than I am right now." This time, he turned his entire body to face Harris as a slight breeze picked up, "And I was terrified of putting her through that."

"So. . .you lied to her so she wouldn't have been as miserable about your death if you ever did die?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Not the best idea to make important decisions while on strong pain medications," he turned back to the grave again, "I was stupid, and this is what I got for it."

"I think Elizabeth would have died whether or not your lied to her."

"I know. . .but I can't help but wish I had a little more time to show how much I really did care for her. . ."

". . .I think she knew, if not the whole team."

Daniel's expressionless face turned to shock, surprised by the words that he had just heard.

"Arella said it herself," Harris continued, "You guys have been giving each other looks, and everyone noticed. You guys love each other. A lot. I could see that and I've barely been on the team."

". . .Really?"

"What do I have to gain lying to you?"

They both remained silent, Daniel turning back to Harris once last time as the breeze ceased. Finally, Daniel's shocked expression turned into a warm smile, one he hadn't worn since Elizabeth's death.

* * *

The sky was completely dark by the time Harris and Daniel made it back, yet the lively atmosphere of Goldenrod City made it seem like it was still day, even after the devastating takeover that had just occurred only hours before. The city refused to sleep as all its inhabitants were out on the streets, having a good time as various stores and casinos flashed their neon signs with decorations and deals in hope of attracting potential customers.

The Pokemon Center, however, was quite opposite besides the bright lights that lit seemingly every corner, leaving nothing in the dark. It had a tranquil quietness within, as if the it were an entirely different world all together from the loud city that surrounded its outside walls.

It wasn't long before both pokemon spotted Matthew, as it was hard to miss his nearly seven foot frame filled with almost pure muscle. He noticed them too, offering a small smile as they walked over to him.

". . .Are you okay?" he asked Daniel as both stopped in front of him, his smile fading into an expression of genuine concern..

"Yeah. . .for now. . ." he looked away.

"Who's watching Arella?" Harris asked.

"Hana and Alucard. Apparently they're small enough for the nurses to let them both in, though I have a distinct feeling they're doing a little more than watching her. . ."

An awkward silence ensued, but was quickly interrupted by the sound of something rushing down the hallway, evident by the various voices yelling to slow the hell down. Soon, Alucard rushed out of the hallway, struggling to keep himself up while panting.

". . .What is it?" Daniel asked the exact question swimming through all three of their heads, Matthew slowly getting up as he did.

"Arella's awake."


	47. Chapter 46: Silent Conversations

"Well. . .I think so anyways," Alucard looked away, and unsure look crossed his face.

"What do you mean 'you think so'?" Harris raised an eyebrow.

"She's screaming bloody murder! Me and Hana were too busy trying to calm her down to check if she was awake or not," he argued.

"Aaaand I'll take it from the present tense that you weren't successful."

"And you think you could do better?"

"Guys, stop arguing," Daniel sighed, then turned to Matthew, "You go."

"But-" he tired to protest, but the Pidgeot shook his head.

"She trusts you the most. Maybe she'll calm down a little if she knows you're there."

"It's worth a shot," Alucard added, "Come on, let's hurry up before people complain and they drug her up more, then Arceus knows when she'll wake up again."

The Crobat gave Matthew no time to think, instead only giving him time to catch up with him as his dashed back down the hallway. They finally reached a door that Hana floated in front of, looking concerned as Matthew could hear the faint sound of Arella screaming behind the white walls.

"Oh thank Arceus you're here," Hana sighed in relief when she saw Matthew. He, however, said nothing instead walking past Hana and opening the door and wincing in reaction as the screaming got a lot louder without the muffling of the walls.

Under the clean sheets of the clean hospital bed laid Arella, wrapped in bandages in several places, and screaming her lungs out. Yet, she lay perfectly still, and her eyes were closed.

Not entirely sure what to do, Matthew closed the door behind him. He pulled up a chair next to the bed and took one of Arella's hands, putting it between his own two. Somehow, it worked, and her screams were eventually reduced into quiet whimpers that escaped from her lips every other moment.

A few minutes later, the door opened again, and a nurse popped her head in, looking around the room curiously.

"Is everything okay in here?" she finally asked, "People were complaining someone was screaming in here. . ."

"She's fine," the Feraligatr replied, keeping her eyes on his trainer, "I think she was having a nightmare."

As if on cue, Arella shot up from the bed, making both nurse and pokemon jump. Arella didn't seem to notice them for a while, instead only looking straight forward. She only noticed Matthew when she tried to move her hand, and found it between the paws of the Feraligatr. The nurse, she didn't noticed until she was already slinking out of the room and closing the door again.

"Are. . .you okay?" Matthew asked, though he already knew the answer.

It took another while for Arella to respond, but she finally replied. "No. . .No I'm not okay," she brought her knees up to her chest and buried her face in them, "Arceus damn it I have no idea what's going on anymore, or if any of this is even real."

". . .What do you mean?"

"That Pikachu girl that been appearing in my dreams, Ellen. . .She's somehow managed to erase my memory of anything that happened in the Radio Tower. After we both went down to the tunnel, my mind is completely blank" a sob went past her pursued lips before she continued "And now she's in trouble, and whoever has her is now apparently going after me."

"What do you mean 'whoever has her-'?"

"I mean someone or something trapped her on top of Mt. Silver, and must have killed a good dozen of people and pokemon."

"Namely Red and Blue."

Arella's attention quickly turned towards the door, but Matthew continued to face forward as he already knew who it was.

"What the hell are _you_ doing here," she hissed as Silver walked in.

"Checking on you. I-"

"She doesn't remember anything from the tower," Matthew interrupted him. An awkward silence ensued as both trainers dodged each other's gaze.

". . .What. .. happened during that time?" she finally asked meekly.

Both the red-head and the Feraligatr glanced at each other.

"A. . .lot of things happened," Matthew looked back at Arella, then looked down.

* * *

Arella had kicked them out of the room forever ago, yet he was still waiting outside her door. It was near midnight, yet he was not sleepy. He just stared.

Wishing he could murder those two.

"You realize its _past_ midnight, right?"

Again, Matthew didn't bother glancing at Silver as the trainer walked up to him.

"I know," the Feraligatr replied.

"What I'm saying is that you should probably go to bed."

". . .She might need me."

"I don't know about your sleep schedules, but I'm pretty sure she's asleep by now."

Matthew went silent again, only staring at the door and occasionally blinking. Shrugging, Silver started to walk past him before the pokemon spoke up again.

"She barely slept last night."

"Even better reason to support that she's probably asleep."

"She spent the entire night sobbing because I called her a terrible trainer. . ."

"Well of _course_ she was Arceus damn sobbing the entire night. She's a girl and you're her starter. You calling her a terrible trainer is like her mom calling her a worthless piece of shit," he rolled his eyes, turning back to Matthew, "But you don't want to smother her either, so go to bed before she somehow finds a way to pin you still being awake on me."

He remained still, and Silver shook his head, not getting the results he expected.

"Look, if it makes you fell any better, Proton and Archer are dead."

That got the pokemon's attention as his gaze swiftly went from the door to the red-head.

"I found them their bodies in the Ilex forest," he continued before Matthew could ask anything, "It was hard to tell it was even them since their bodies were so distorted."

"Distorted as in. . . ?"

"Distorted like a psychic got to them. A really, really powerful psychic. . .I doubt it was even human."

Another silence ensued.

"I'll go to bed soon if it makes you feel better. . ." Matthew finally sighed, as if an entire conversation took place in the couple of minutes of silence.

"It's not making me feel better, I just know it'd be the same exact stupid thing Arella would say to you" the red-head shrugged again before disappearing down the hallway.


	48. Chapter 47: A Perplexing Problem

How was she supposed to face her team now? They all knew already, but she didn't think any of them actually knew what she looked like when she was a girl.

"Why? Of all times, why **now**?" Arella whined to herself quietly as she ran past all the high-rising buildings of Goldenrod, heading towards the Ilex forest. She knew Celebi was a time-traveler, but maybe she would get lucky and he. . .she. . ._it_ would be there and have some answers.

She didn't remember what time it was when she first woke up, but she remembered waking up to an uncomfortable feeling on her chest, then saw herself in the mirror in her room as she got out of bed. The black hair she had had as a boy was replaced with shoulder length blonde hair. She also got other womanly functions back, but she wasn't going to go into detail for that. She had to resort to steal a pair of pajamas and a coat from another room to get out of the hospital, which was actually the easy part since no one recognized her.

Picking up pace a little, she made sure to keep a tight grip on the letter she had found on her side table and opened when she woke up. Inside was no more than a letter from Ellen, apologizing for everything and telling her she should go into hiding. She wanted to listen to that letter, and yet. . .something in her gut told her that it wasn't Ellen, that it was someone else trying to take guise as Ellen so Arella wouldn't have questioned it.

It was only a little longer before she found herself in Ilex Forest, relieving the memories she had connected with this place: Her last battle with Silver, the stupid Farfecth'd, telling everyone her past, when Fudge and Elizabeth were alive. . .It all seemed like it happened so long ago, and yet the forest itself remained unchanged, like she had only left it seconds ago.

"Don't cry. Not now. Not now, you're about to meet a legendary," she told herself as she wiped the forming tears from her eyes as her heart still refused to believe that Elizabeth was actually gone. Hell, she still couldn't believe most of what Matthew told her actually happened, due to forced memory loss and it all being over way to fast.

Arella's mind quickly shifted gears as she approached the Forest Shrine and saw the large area of grass and dirt stained with blood around it. On one patch, lay Celebi, apparently either knocked out cold or dead. She slowly approached the forest guardian and picked it up, confirming it was only the former. Still, it looked like it was in really bad shape.

Not long after picking the legendary up, she heard an odd noise, and looked up out of curiosity. Levitating maybe 5 feet above her was another Celebi, its eyes narrowed and hands glowing with a green energy.

She then took the time to run away like a little girl.

"You better be the right one," she murmured to herself, ducking to avoid a rather large green ball of energy sent flying towards her. She went too low, however, and ended up loosing her balance and falling over onto the mossy floor of the forest.

What she expected next was a green energy ball to the face as she turned around. What she got instead, however, was a completely different story. She did get the green ball of energy to the face from the maybe clone-Celebi, but it was a quickly reflected by a pink screen that appeared in front of her.

Before she could take a minute to soak in what happened, a voice near her yelled, "Get the hell out of there! Damn Light Screen doesn't last forever."

Not bothering to check who the voice belonged to, she dashed the opposite way of the other Celebi, making sure the one she was carrying was still there as she did.

"You're damn lucky I was over there." Arella turned to see a scruffy, middle-aged man running beside her with a Lunatone following closely behind, "The fuck are you doing up this late anyways? It's almost 4 for Arceus' sake."

"Not entirely sure myself. . ." she replied quietly, wincing as she heard another ball explode on the light screen behind them.

"Kids these days," he shook his head, "What's got Celebi so pissed about you anyways?"

"Probably the Celebi I'm holding. . .plus other reasons."

The stranger did a double take, his mind taking a minute to comprehend what she just said.

"Two Celebis? You're fucking kidding me. . .I know a lot of legendaries die off and get replaced, but I've never seen them both at once. . .Maybe that damn thing doesn't have a chance."

Before she was even able to formulate a polite version of 'it _will_ have a chance on my watch', she heard the sound of glass shattering, then an energy ball landing between the two humans. They were so close to Goldenrod, and yet so far.

"What do you mean you're all out of PP? Damn it Aiden," the stranger yelled at the Lunatone as the Celebi drew closer, then turned back to Arella, "Don't you have any damn pokemon, kid?"

She didn't have a chance to answer that either, since as soon as she opened her mouth a blur flew across the floating Celebi. Without even making a sound, it disappeared into a black-ish smoke.

"Are you two okay?"

Arella had to suppress a gasp when she saw Daniel land in front of them, remembering her current predicament just in time.

"You wouldn't have even needed to ask that if a certain Lunatone was able to keep Light Screen up longer," the stranger grumbled, shaking his head as he called back his pokemon, apparently named Aiden.

"You're criticizing the pokemon that saved us?" she turned her attention back to the stranger, "Without your Lunatone I would be a damn goner. That deserves at least _some_ praise!"

"All the damn thing deserves is more training," he replied with annoyance in his voice, storming back to Goldenrod as he did.

"If Arella was here, she would of kicked his sorry ass already," she could hear Daniel murmur under his breath before turning back to her and noticing the downed Celebi in her arms.

"Umm. . .I better go too. . ." she started to head off, but the Pidgeot spoke up again.

"Let me take you back. If whatever made that Celebi was trying to kill the real Celebi, another one might come. . ."

She wanted to protest. She just wanted to say go away and try to just cut him off now and get him over with since she doubted they'd ever believe that she was Arella, but. . .it was _Daniel_. Her second catch. . .her best friend. Arceus damn, is this what that mystery woman meant by 'every step of the way I'm trying to break you'?

Without another word both pokemon and trainer walking at a brisk pace towards Goldenrod, both lost in their thoughts.


	49. Chapter 48: 30 Feet Away

"She couldn't have gone that far."

"We've checked all over the place. If she's around here, she's hiding really well."

30 feet. Arella was 30 feet away from them and had to listen to her own team slowly regroup and talk about their fruitless searches for the past hour as the Celebi was healed. Only 30 feet away and she could say nothing without fear of not being believed.

"Look, she has to be somewhere," Matthew sighed, "And Arceus damn I'm not giving up till we find her."

She couldn't stand it anymore. She couldn't listen to them talk about her like she was missing when she was only 30 feet away from them. Not wanting to hear anymore, Arella got up and walked out of the pokemon center. The nurses had said that it would take a while to heal all of Celebi's wounds, so as long as she wasn't out too long she hopefully wouldn't miss him before it traveled to another time.

Even as the sun barely peaked over the distant mountains, Goldenrod seemed lively. The air was full of the hum and bustle of people navigating the streets, and the occasional burst of noise of the Magnet Train coming in to take people all the way to Saffron City in Kanto or bring them from there.

Near the northern end of Goldenrod was a petite little flower shop, which Arella almost didn't even notice. However, once she did, it almost guilt tripped her into entering the shop and buying some flowers with what little money she had left.

And that's how she found herself in front of Elizabeth's grave, placing the flowers in front of it, and then sitting down. For a while, she let nothing disturb her: not the chirping of nearby Spearows, not the occasional shrill cry of a nearby Nidoran, nothing. All she could do was stare at the makeshift grave that served as Elizabeth's resting place.

"I. . .I don't know what to say," she mumbled as she finally broke her own silence, "Maybe it wouldn't have made a different if I was captured or not, but. . ." she paused again, sniffing back tears as she did, "I kinda like to think it's might fault. . .it at least gives me someone to blame who's actually around, and not. . .you know, [i]dead[/i].

"I. . .I promise myself this wouldn't happen again after Fudge. . .hell, I promised this would never happen before Fudge," she bit her lip, wiping away a few rogue tears that got through, "Looks like all I'm good for is breaking promises. . ."

"You're annoying to find Arella."

She jumped to her feet, expecting to find someone she would not like dealing with. Instead, she found Celebi floating at her height, arms crossed.

"It was annoying enough getting out of pokemon center, but it was worse trying to find you without revealing myself to anyone else," it sighed, "Thanks for saving my ass though. . .I'm in your debt."

The letter

She searched herself real quick, then found she had stuck it in her coat pocket, quickly bringing it out an un-crumpling it.

"You knew Ellen, right?"

"Girl was annoying, but yeah."

She held up the letter for the Celebi to read, her heart thumping out of anticipation as she did.

"I. . .I don't think this is from her."

Her anxiety only got worse as the legendary scrutinized the letter, moments passing by like hours as she could only look. Finally, it rolled its eyes.

"Really? Did you[i] really[/i] think that was from Ellen?"

"Wha-"

"You know about her current predicament, don't you?"

"Yeah, but-"

"Do you honestly think she would have been able to recreate your body here and switch your soul again while inside that damn thing on top of Mt. Silver? She had to enlist my help to do it the first time, and we borrowed a body."

"So it was. . .[i]her[/i]?" she pursed her lips, blinking a couple times as she did, "Arceus damn. . .she really is trying to break me. . ."

"Knowing [i]her[/i]," Celebi interjected, going along with Arella's censoring, "She's a sneaky type. She only tends to kill people that have cut themselves off from society."

"And going into hiding would do that. . ."

"Exactly. [i]she[/i] was trying to isolate you so she could kill you without worry."

"Arceus damnit, [b]why[/b]?" she snapped back, "Why me? What the hell does any of this have to do with me? I just want. To. Go. Home!"

"You [i]wanna[/i] know what happens when if you go back home?" the forest guardian raised an eyebrow.

The trainer didn't have time to answer. Milliseconds later there was a bright green flash, then. . .they were in the same area. Yet. . .it was different. She took a look around and realized why. The once lush greenery was now turning a sickly yellow, any architecture around was in complete ruins, and it was quiet.

It wasn't the quiet that you would get from walking down a wilderness path, or just being away from the city, it was dead quiet. No Spearows or Pidgies chirping, no rustle of the wind against the grass. . .nothing.

"What. . ." the words choked out of her mouth, "W-what-"

"You hear it?" Celebi finally asked, then turned around and floated away as he beckoned for Arella to follow her. She followed mindlessly as her brain still tried to work out where she was and what had happened.

It didn't take long for them to reach a clearing from the sickly shrubbery. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had hoped. Dearly hoped that what she was about to see was at least somewhat manageable. All that hope had flown out of the window as soon as she saw what lay in front of her.

It looked like Goldenrod, or at least what was left of it. Any of the strong concrete buildings were half their size, if they were lucky. Any structures that had any standing walls in the slightest looked like they would crumble if you breathed on them. The same sickly yellow plant life that had surrounded them back at Elizabeth's grave had almost taken over the abandoned city, vines chocking as many things it could get its leafy tendrils on.

"C-Celebi. . ." she finally managed to stammer, her eyes still fixed on the ruin city, "When. .when are we?"

"80 years in the future, approximately 60 years after Armageddon," he replied in a flat tone, "A virus wiped out all of the male population of pokemon and changed any that survived into females. The females didn't last long after that," his tone dropped a little, "The humans died shortly after words."

"Wh.. . Why?"

As if on cue, the ground rumbled. It was only gently at first, but then it started to shake so violently that Arella was having trouble even keeping her balance.

"That's why," Celebi looked up at the sky as he spoke, making the trainer do so as well. The sky was a dusty orange, blocking out pretty much any sun that tried to get through. Instead, giant balls of intensely burning fire that shown with a pure white brilliance hurtled themselves down to the dusty earth at worryingly-fast speeds.

"I do not know what they are, or why they are happening. All I know is that so far, whatever it is, your duty is not fulfilled yet, and that this happened all over the world. . .both of them anyways," the forest guardian turned to eye her, "Are you sure you want to go back home yet?"

"Both-"

Before either of them knew it, one of the white fireballs hit a building near them, exploding in a shower of sparks, debris, and dirt.

"RUN!" Celebi yelled, and Arella more then happily agreed. Not long after more white fireballs hit the ground behind them, sending up large amounts of dirt as the earth continued to shake. She looked back once, then instantly turned back forward as one exploded right behind her. Still, she got dirt in her eyes, and was near blind by the tears..

After that, Arella wasn't sure what had happened. She remembered tripping, then feeling the thump of her body against the earth. She heard Celebi screaming something, but she couldn't make out its words. Slowly, she got up, looking up as she did.

All she saw was white. 30 feet away, and she could do nothing but stare into her impending doom.


	50. Chapter 49: Danger

"A. . .Arella?"

No sudden impact, no pain beyond belief. . .nothing. The white ball just floated there for a little bit as Arella did the same on the ground, stunned. That voice that she just heard. . .it seemed to come straight from her mind instead of her ears. . .and it sounded. . .so. . .

"No. . .Oh Arceus, is. . .is that you Elizabeth?"

"Arel-"

An instant later, it was gone. It didn't suddenly explode in mid-air, or rain showers, it just. . .disappeared.

"Holy Arceus, what the hell just happened?" Celebi stared at the spot the fireball used to be, a perplexed look taking over his face.

"I. . .I don't know," Arella managed to stammer out as she slowly rose to her feet, "I. . .I heard my Beedrill's voice, and then it. . .just. . ."

The legendary sighed, shaking its head, "Don't think about it too much. . .As soon as I figure out what that is. . .I'll tell you."

Another flash and the silence was gone. She never thought she'd enjoy the hum of wildlife, but now she was near revering the environmental white noise. It was a lot better than the dreaded silence of the future.

"Celebi? . . .I. . .I need to ask you another question," she choked out, still trying to calm herself down after what she had seen and experienced.

"Shoot."

"How did Ellen get involved in all this crap? I mean, she's. . .she's just a Pikachu and-"

Any words that came out later were drowned out by Celebi bursting out laughing, clutching its stomach as the forest guardian rolled over in the air.

"Ellen? Just a Pikachu? That's a good one! I can't believe-" the legendary stopped laughing when he saw Arella's face, "She. . .never told you, did she?"

She was about ready to scream at him in pure frustration. She had already had to dig really deep for just a few things from Ellen, she could only imagine how many other things she was hiding. . .whatever she was.

"I. . .can't exactly say it out loud or anything," he said as he glanced around, "But her name's an anagram. Not really an ordinary anagram but. . .you'll figure it out."

"That's honestly more than I've ever gotten out of Ellen," Arella gave a nervous smile.

"She's like that. She thinks keeping secrets will help everyone out in the long run," Celebi shrugged ". . .I have to go, before _she_ finds me. . .Stay safe Arella."

"Same to you."

There was one more flash, and Celebi was gone again. Of course, before she even got to think about anything the legendary had just told her, she heard her name again, this time from a different voice. Without thinking, she turned around and found Harris and Daniel, staring at her with bewildered expressions as all three remained completely silent.

". . .Is. . .Is that. . .really. . .you?" Daniel finally broke the silence, but still found getting the words out near impossible.

"I guess. . .I never really told you guys. . .what I looked like as a girl."

". . .How can we be entirely sure it's you though?" Harris raised an eyebrow.

". . .This is what I was afraid of," Arella looked away, biting her lip as she did to try and keep a blank expression.

"Harris. . ." Daniel turned to the Sudowoodo "Did anyone tell you about her. . .er. . .temper."

"Of course."

". . .When I saved her, over by the Ilex Forest, and that one trainer was scolding his Lunato-"

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa. . .wait. . ." Harris's eyes widened, "Did you just say. . .a. . .Lunatone?"

"Yeah, why?"

He remained silent, instead glancing everywhere. After a while, he dashed off into the brush as both human and bird tried to keep up with him. Eventually, they came to a small clearing, and she couldn't help but gasp.

In front of her was a Mareep, passed out on its side as what looked like a rather small Ursaring trap was clamp on to its rear left foot. Its mouth was open slightly, showing various scars and scabs littered throughout its mouth, and even parts of its fleece was tinted red due to blood.

". . .That's why," Harris finally broke the silence.

"Oh Arceus. . ." Arella could only whisper as she rushed over to the Mareep, kneeling next to it. She could just barely hear its rasp breathing, but from the look of it, it wasn't going to last much longer. . .

". . .We have to get it back to the pokemon center," she finally decided out loud, prying the trap loose until she could get its leg out.

"Arella. . ." Harris sighed, "If that person you described is who I think he is. . .it might be very physically and emotionally damaged. . .and it might be better if you just-"

The glare that his trainer gave him before he could even finish the sentence surprised both the Sudowoodo and the Pidgeot, shocking them both into silence as she gathered the sheep into her arms.

Then all 3 were slammed to the ground.

"Hmmm. . .look at this," Arella heard a voice as she struggled to shift her weight off of the Mareep under her, but wasn't very successful due to the heavy weight pressing down on her. With the slight glances she got once in a while of Daniel and Harris, they were both having the same problems.

"I go back to have some fun and I find 3 more unwelcome guests," she could just see the familiar outfit of the man from the Ilex Forest in front of her, "I should have just left you in the Ilex Forest if this is how you say thanks, little fuck."

". . .Screw. . .you" she managed to stammer out, but only found the pressure on her back grow harder, and the man chuckle.

"And what do we have here?" she saw him away from her and towards one of her pokemon, but couldn't get in a position to see who it was. "I never thought I'd see you again. Last time I saw you was when you and Rojo decided to beat me up and haul your asses out of there. Makes me wonder if you tried to screw him over first, or he tried to screw you over and you wanted to teach him a leason."

"I. . .did. . .nothing. . .Richard," Arella could hear Harris's voice behind her.

"Then where is he? Oh, wait, that's a dumb question. He was probably captured the first few seconds you guys escaped me. Fucking shame too, he was really powerful. . .Now, where was I again? Oh yeah. . ."

She nearly screamed as she felt the already huge pressure on her back get harder and harder, making it way more difficult to not crush the Mareep under her with her own weight.

"It looks like you have a little something under you," she could hear him right next to her as he talked, "Do you want me to get that out?"

It seemed like a flash, but almost right after he said that, she found herself biting on his hand, refusing to let go as the man tried to pry her off. He finally succeeded after a long struggle, throwing her across the clearing when he finally did.

She landed face up, but still felt the extreme pressure keeping her against the ground. Still, she saw Daniel and Harris against the ground too, obviously in pain. In front of her was Richard, wearing dark clothes Aiden made giggling sounds next to him.

Why. . .why did he look familiar? Why did he seem familiar? Why. . .did her back sting so much? She felt her breath get quicker as Richard slowly approached her

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this, little fuck," he stated flatly, completely ignoring the now exposed Mareep and instead pulling out a knife, "But I'm afraid you leave me no choice.


	51. Chapter 50: The Past

"Richard!" Harris yelled, becoming somewhat successful at leaving the ground before being slammed back into it again.

"Stay out of this Harris," Richard shot him a glare, "Of course, I can always tell your little fuck of a trainer about every single pokemon you helped me capture, torture, and sell off or kill."

"Harris. . ." Daniel looked over at him, and the Sudowoodo only continued to give a glare back at Richard.

"I told. . .you. I've. . .done. . .some things. . .I regret"

"Now little fuck, I'm feeling kinda generous, so which part do you want me to mark-up first?"  
_"Now little fuck, I'm feeling kinda generous, so which part do you want me to mark-up first?"_

Now Arella was getting a really, really big thing of déjà vu, to the point she was pretty sure this happened to her before. . .but. . .when?

"No preferences? Back it is."

The male trainer unceremoniously kicked her over so her so her stomach was on the ground, then she could feel him roughly lift her coat and shirt up. She expected the knife to come at any moment, and gritted her teeth in brace for the impact.

". . .Huh, someone already got there before me. . .Pretty nice handiwork too. . ."

Okay, now she was convinced this had happened before.

Before he could admire the 'handiwork' of whatever was on Arella's back, she could hear him yell in shock, then curse under his breath for a good 20 seconds. Turning her head around to the other side, she could see he was clutching his hand, which now looked slightly burnt.

"Tch, almost forgot about you," he sighed, looking back at the Mareep. Its eyes were somewhat open now, but it didn't look like it'd be that way for long. Without another exchange, he smoothly moved closer to the Mareep and plunged the blade down on it.

Then watched it shatter into a million pieces.

"Wha-" he started, then noticed the faint blue barrier around it. "Shit shit shit Aiden! Crush them, now!"

The Lunatone quickly obeyed, but not quick enough as faint green barrier surrounded all three pokemon and the trainer, relieving them of psychic pressure that kept them down. Seconds later, Aiden collapsed onto the ground, tired from the psychic energy he was emitting the entire time.

Richard called back the living moon rock, display his wide range of colorful vocabulary as he did, running off before anyone in the clearing gained enough strength back to chase after him. It didn't matter though, since as soon as he started running he ran into a giant wall of muscle and fell down. Looking up, he saw Matthew staring him back down above 8 feet of lean muscle.

"Aw fuck," he sighed, avoiding the gaze of the giant Feraligatr right in front of him, "This isn't how I hope it would have ende-"

Not another second later Arella went after the other pokemon trainer, her hands about to seize his throat before Matthew picked her up by the coat.

"Let me go!" she screamed, wriggling around trying to get loose, "He killed me! He's the one that killed me! . . .killed. . .me. . ." her squirming slowed down until she finally stopped. Matthew set her down again, and she instantly fell to the ground, asleep.

"I don't know who you are or what you did to my trainer," The Feraligatr glared down at Richard, "But if you ever get anywhere near her or any of my team mates, I assure you: I will kill you without hesitation."

The trainer smirked one more time, then was gone the next second as he rushed out of the clearing as fast as he could. Matthew stared in the direction that he ran for a while, then back to Daniel and Harris.

". . .Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah. . ." Daniel replied as he got back on his feet.

"Being pushed into the ground puts a number on you after a while," Harris sighed, ". . .How did you know we were over here?"

". . .A Hypno approached me in the pokemon center," he turned away as he picked up Arella in his arms, "He told me he was a friend of yours and that you guys were in danger. . ."

Harris looked around, then looked back at Matthew while Daniel just stared at Harris.

"I. . .I have to go for a bit," he sighed, "I'll tell you guys everything later. . .I promise."

Before either pokemon could protest, Harris had disappeared into the brush, just leaving Matthew, Daniel, and an unconscious Arella and Mareep in an awkward silence.

". . .How did you know that was Arella?" Daniel finally asked.

"I've dealt with that temper before. . .remember?" Matthew gave a small smile, then noticed the Mareep, ". . .Was she trying to protect that?"

"Yeah. . .Harris said it probably wouldn't make it, and even if it did it'd never be normal again. . ." Daniel looked away, "She was also about ready to kill us if we made her leave it."

The Feraligatr chuckled, "That definitely sounds like her."

* * *

It didn't take Harris long to find him. Anyone would have spotted a long Hypno on a trunk, smoking his troubles away, especially him.

It was just like when he was first captured. . .

"Ah, Harriz," the Hypno spoke up without turning to face him, "Eet haz bein a long time."

"It was you, wasn't it?" the Sudowoodo demanded without acknowledging the Hypno's previous statement.

"Straight to zee point, az always," he tossed the cigarette onto the ground below, then turned to Harris, "Yez, it waz me. I'm pretty sure Rizhard knew az well."

"Why? You left me all those years ago when we escaped? Why show up now?"

"Just because I left all zhose yearz ago does not mean we can not be friendz ztill," the Hypno sighed, "You zhould be glad I zhowed up; you might have not survived. . .or worse. . ."

Both Sudowoodo and Hypno remained silent, the unspoken words hanging in the air.

"Rojo. . ." Harris looked away, "You know. . .you can put the light screens down. . .no one's around."

"Zhat could change at any zhime," Rojo stood up from the stump, "Pluz, I get a leetle uncomfortable when zhe wild pokemon view me like a zircus act."

". . .Right."

"Do not worry, I'd much rather people forget," he gave the rock pokemon a small smile.

This time, an uncomfortable silence hung in the air, before Rojo broke it again.

"Zhat girl. . .waz she your new trainer?"

"Yeah. . .though. . .I don't know how long that'll last now. . .now that they found out about Richard."

"Do not worry. . .at least one of zhem zhould understand zhat we zhought we were doing the right zhing"

"Yeah. . ." Harris glanced behind him "I. . .I think I better go. . .I need to tell them the truth"

The Sudowoodo started to leave before Rojo spoke up again

"Do you want to know zhe reason I zlit up with you?" Rojo raised an eyebrow. Harris, stopped walking, but didn't answer, so he continued "I knew you'd find a trainer zhat could erase your past. Think of it. . .az a zhank you. . .for attacking Rizhard before he found out."

Harris said nothing again, but started sprinting towards Goldenrod. The Hypno smiled again, then pulled out another cigarette. As he did, his whole arm turned pink for a split second, then turned back normal. He stared at the arm, sighed, and then lit the cigarette he picked up.

"Ne meurs pas."

* * *

AN: That last line means 'don't die' in French. . .I think


	52. Chapter 51: Out

". . .He's back"

The Sudowoodo could practically feel his entire team's gaze as he entered the pokemon center. He was very, very tempted to just turn around and walk out again, but Rojo's words and his own stubbornness made him approach his team mates.

". . .How's Arella?" he asked, breaking through the awkward silence that hung around the team like a impending thunderstorm.

"She's fine. . .she's just sleeping," Matthew answered, before another silence washed over them. Harris looked away, trying not to look back at his teammates so he could keep his somewhat calm demeanor.

"So, you got to tell us everything!" Hana smiled.

". . .I'm sorry, what?"

"About that awesome battle you n' Daniel n' Matthew had," she pouted, "You guys were so lucky! I haven't had an awesome fight in like. . .forever!"

Harris looked over at Daniel, confused. He gave him a smile back before speaking.

"She's referring battling against that guy with the Lunatone," the Pidgeot nodded, "Weird guy, wasn't he?"

His face remained in a confused expression before he finally understood what was going on.

"Yeah, nearly killed us to," Harris nodded as well, "Matthew came just in time though. . ." he looked back at the front desk of the pokemon center, ". . .Any news on that Mareep?"

"Not yet," the Feraligatr sighed, "I'm sure it's still alive. . .for now. . ."

The sound of footsteps echoed in the hallway, yet none of the pokemon bothered to look to see who it was until they heard a familiar voice.

"Oh my Arceus. . .are you guys _still_ here?"

Everyone turned to see Whitney, gasping in surprise at the sight of them.

"Do not tell me Arella's still in a hospital bed and hasn't woken up. I was here visiting Kelly and I was sure you'd guys be out of Goldenrod by now."

It started with Matthew, who looked uneasily at Daniel and Harris. Daniel looked down, Matthew looked away, then both Hana and Alucard gulped.

"U-uh, yeah. . ." Alucard managed to stammer out, "He kinda deserves it. . .y'know?"

Whitney simply stared at the team's odd demeanor before her eyes brightened.

"Oh my gosh, that's a fantastic idea!" she gleamed, then turned back to the hallway, "I'll go visit him right now."

"Woah woah woah woah woah," Alucard quickly grabbed on to Hana before flying in front of Whitney.

"It's still a little early for Arella to have visitors," Hana explained, keeping a calm demeanor, "I mean, we still have like. . .no clue what happened up there, so who knows what he'll be like when he wakes up."

". . .Whitney?"

At the sound of the new voice, the gym leader of Goldenrod quickly turned around, expecting to see Arella right behind her.

She did.

"I'm. . .I'm sorry, who are you?" she raised an eyebrow.

Arella's cheeks flushed a bright pink, then she looked at the ground in embarrassment. The gym leader looked back at all of Arella's pokemon, and they all averted her gaze as well.

"Whitney. . .I'm. . .I'm so sorry," the trainer finally managed to choke out. Why did she though? She expected her to not believe, to call her crazy, to laugh at her. She never expected the sudden stinging pain on her cheek and the sound that almost rivaled a gunshot.

"How could you?" she screamed, hysterical, "I though for once I had finally met the perfect person, and you turn out to be a girl! A freaking girl!

"Whitney. . ." Arella bit her lip.

"What? Did you make a bet with one of my girls just to see how quickly I could fall in love with you if you dressed like a guy? Huh? I am **sick** of this shit," she pointed her finger towards the door, "Get your shit, and get out of my city."

"But-"

"_Out_."

Arella stared at the pink-haired girl, trying to process what happened. But, it didn't take long before she darted down the hallway, all of her pokemon following without hesitation. The only one who stopped was Matthew, who took his time to glare at Whitney before he joined the others.

* * *

The sun was just barely reaching the mid-point of its journey across the sky when Arella and her team left the premises of Goldenrod City, calling back everyone except Hana, Alucard, and Matthew.

"So. . .still wearing your old clothes?" Hana asked curiously as she hung on to one of her trainer's shoulders.

"Yeah," she gave a weak smile back to the Jumpluff, "It's not like I had any time to get more clothes. . ."

"Arella, you really should have listened to her," Matthew sighed, "It's not your fault that you were a guy back then and a girl now."

"Matthew. . ." she sighed as well, still smiling, "It's. . .a girl thing."

"Yeah, I'd be really pissed if a guy kept a secret from me!" Hana added, "Besides, it's not like she knew," she climbed over to the shoulder closest to Matthew, "She'll probably call after a while and apologize."

The tower Feraligatr simply stared until Alucard flew closer to him and whispered, "It's okay, I really don't get girls either."

Before he could make a comment back, both boys noticed that Arella had stopped and was looking down. Following her gaze, they saw the Mareep staring back up at their trainer.

"I. . .guess I forgot about you after all that," she smiled at the sheep, kneeling down to its height, ". . .Can you talk?"

"Um. . .Arella. . ." Matthew walked closer, ". . .Its tongue was cut off by that guy. . .it can't speak anymore. . ."

"Oh. . .", her expression darkened a bit, then soured for even asking that question, then went back to a smile. "Do you have a name then?"

The sheep thought for a bit, then proceeded to write on the dusty road, eventually spelling the name 'Leu'.

"Leu. . .huh" she picked the Mareep up gently, ". . .You want to come with us then?"

The Mareep nodded as fast as she could, letting some electricity spark off her fleece as if she was trying to show off her power.

". . .We do have a spot open" she giggled at the display of 'power' "Welcome to the team Leu."


	53. Chapter 52: Never Again

She woke up with nightmares of her parents.

That was all Leu could remember of her parents anymore: dead, right in front of her. The tails cut off, the skin removed in some places, and their soulless eyes staring back at her whilst she could do nothing.

She swore that it wouldn't happen again, especially now that she was in a team of apparently super powerful pokemon. She didn't want to be the weak one again, the one in need of saving.

The Mareep looked around the darkened pokemon center room, everyone else still asleep. The Feraligatr slept right next to the bed, while the Jumpluff and Crobat took up some room on the queen sized bed as they snoozed. The Pidgeot and Sudowoodo slept right next to the door, as if they had been on guard duty and fell asleep in the process.

Her trainer, though, wasn't asleep. She was awake on the bed, staring at the door as if contemplating something. Eventually, she got up as quietly as she could and went for the door. Curious as to where she was going without any of her pokemon, Leu quickly followed, half hobbling to keep weight off of her back left foot that was tightly bandaged..

The chase lead Leu through the brightly lit, warm building to the bitter cold and eerily quiet outside with lots of odd looking buildings and a tower in the distance. Her trainer seemed to be freaked out by the silence, but pressed on anyways towards the high tower. Leu followed as quick as she could, though her left foot started to give off a throbbing pain.

She ended up in another building, only lit by candles here and there with monks protecting the passage through. As soon as her trainer talked to them, they stepped aside, and the Mareep quickly ran past them as they continued to stare at her trainer. The passage went for a while, but eventually came out right next to the large tower that was surrounded by trees that had leaves of all hues of red, orange, and yellow. Halfway between the passage and the tower was a man with yellow hair and purple attire, focusing on something.

". . .M-. . .Morty?" she finally spoke up, and the man turned. He looked her up and down before sighing.

"So that's what you look like as a girl. . ." he trailed off.

". . .You knew?"

"I know a lot of things, Arella. I can see things that others cannot," he explained, "Like that fact that a Mareep followed you here from the Pokemon Center."

Leu was startled when both her trainer and the man stared straight at her, but quickly shook off the feeling and hobbled over to her.

"I also know you two have the same drive, but. . .I want to hear it from you."

"I. . ." she stammered as she started to speak, "I want to get better. I want to stop being a nuisance to my own team when things get bad. . .I. . ." she paused, "I want to fend for myself when something beyond their power comes for me."

He smiled, "Let's get started then."

* * *

He would have freaked out, but waking out without Arella was starting to become a tradition. A very annoying tradition that made him feel like she didn't think of them as a family anymore, but, a tradition nonetheless.

Matthew didn't blame her when he noticed Leu was gone too, however. If what Daniel told him was true, the poor thing was probably just as scarred, if not more then his own trainer.

At this point, that was saying something.

He decided then he might as well look for them a little bit, to make sure she wasn't trying to kill herself or something. He chuckled as he left the room, noticing that both Daniel and Harris were right next to the door, asleep as if they were up all night ready to protect her from anything.

He walked down the hallway as quietly as he could, trying to size down his stature a little so he didn't intimidate every single person he came across, but it was quite hard when he was a seven and a half foot, pure muscle Feraligatr. He had realized that fact a while ago.

Matthew was so busy thinking that he almost didn't notice his own trainer in the breakfast area, the chair to the right of her being occupied by an Ampharos and the other was occupied by. . ._Morty_, of all people.

It, however, did not take long for Arella to notice him. She quickly waved him over to her table, smiling as she did. . .something he hadn't seen in a while.

"Morning Matthew," she greeted her starter as he walked over, "Is anyone else awake?"

"Not that I know of. . ." he replied, eyeing Morty the entire time, ". . .Where were you last night?"

"I couldn't sleep," she glanced over at the Ampharos, ". . .Neither could she, so I asked Morty for help with my training."

Matthew found it hard to believe she was sitting at the same table with the ghost gym leader, let alone asking him for help with training. Daniel could vouch for him, she was terrified of ghosts and did _not _want to go in that gym.

Unfortunately, the only one that saw the worst part in person was dead.

"Where are you heading next?"

Morty himself interrupted his thoughts, and it took him all he could to not scowl at him, at least not in the presence of Arella.

"We're heading off to Blackthorn," Arella smiled back at him, "It's the only gym badge we're missing."

". . .Blackthorn." Morty's gaze suddenly went distant, gaining him confused stares from both Arella and the two pokemon currently with her.

"Morty?" Arella finally asked after a while, hesitant as she did. That seemed to do the trick though, since his gaze fixed back on Arella as he snapped back into reality.

"There's. . .Arceus, how do I put this?" he glanced nervously around the room, then leaned in closely, forcing Matthew to move in closer to hear what he had to say, "There's been some rumors about her. . .cheating, recently."

"Cheating?" she gasped.

"Shhhh, not so loud," he whispered, "I'm supposed to have a neutral opinion on all league matters and keep my mouth shut about this."

"And why would that be?" Matthew raised an eyebrow.

"It keeps gym leaders from being at each others throats," he sighed, "the leaders are influential people, but if we had strong opinions about league matters, including other leaders, they may start using their influence to make another leader look bad, and then that leader will do the same back, and then others will join in," the gym leader shook his head, "Its kind of a check and balance thing."

"So what about the next gym leader?" Arella bit her lip.

"As I said, there's been. . .rumors that after being beaten by a trainer, she claims she'll only give a badge up if they pass some trial which is supposedly impossible. When any of the trainers complained to the league, she just says that they didn't beat her in the first place since they don't have a badge to prove it," Morty's voice lowered, "I mean, she's always been kind of a. . .sore looser, but this is a definite first. . .theoretically."

The trainer didn't have any more time to ask Morty about the 'theoretical' cheating, since only moments after he was done someone called his name. He turned for a split second, whispered that he had to go, and was gone in a flash, leaving her, Leu, and Matthew to themselves, thinking.

"Arceus damnit," she suddenly stood up, "I've been through gender-switching, torture, and death since I started this journey. I'm not letting a little cheating end it."

* * *

So, it's been a while. . .About a year if I remember correctly, or at least getting there. I don't think I ever told you guys, but my computer with my ROM, my notes, everything died last November and I haven't really written since. I have this chapter and another left that I posted up on Nuzlocke that I didn't post here and that's probably going to be it, but who knows? Thank you again to everyone for your support ^_^


	54. Chapter 53: Non Existent

". . .3. . .4. . .5- Yeah, that's a straight. I win."

To the untrained eye, the room was completely empty, but sitting in the darkness were two people, a male with bright purple hair and an outfit that looked more like a clown costume, and a female with light-blue purple hair and a yellow outfit.

"Arceus damn, I hate playing with you," the man groaned as he watched his table partner gather up all the chips in the middle of the table.

"Funny, yesterday you were complaining that I was the _only_ one you could play with," she smirked.

"That's because you are: Koga cheats, and Bruno accuses me of using voodoo mind tricks every time I win."

". . .What about Lance?"

"Lance has been holed up in the champion's room ever since he came back from Kanto," he sighed, "I've tried figuring out what's going on, but his room is warded. . .don't know _how_he did it, but its warded."

"Will. . .has it ever occurred to you that something might be happening to Lance?" she asked hesitantly as she dealt out the cards again.

"Well, yeah. . .holing himself up, the wards. . ." he leaned in closer, whispering, "The maniacal laughter I keep hearing every night."

"Are you sure that's not your pokemon?"

"Pretty sure, Karen. Pretty sure. . ." he tensed up, turned his head, then sighed again as he turned back to Karen. "Okay Koga, seriously, the ninja entrance has gotten old."

An outline appeared into their eye sight until the full figure of the former Fuschia gym leader approached the table.

"So has having to navigate this room. If I was Bruno, either I'd be dead or you two would be," Koga nodded, "No time to argue, though: the champion wishes to see us."

Both Karen and Will glanced at each other before slowly rising out of their chairs, watching Koga leave.

". . .I'm having the distinct feeling something really bad's about to happen," Will gulped.

"Unfortunately, you're usually right in that matter," Karen sighed, both of them walking out of the room into a great hallway, lined with gold-trimmed carpets and paintings of every single champion ever to be crowned. The hallway walls themselves reached up so high it looked like they could just swat the moon away if they wanted to, with elegant paintings up above that even the best eyes could barely see from the floor. Everything in the room, though, pointed to the end of the hall, the great, 12 foot golden doors that separated everyone else from the champion's room.

Bruno and Koga were already waiting for them in the great hallway, both impatient as if it had taken them forever to get there. None of them said a word, just simply turned and walked down the hallway towards the grand doors.

Then they exploded.

Not that the doors exploded themselves, but they were blown of their hinges with such force that they were already through the walls within a second, and glass of picture frames and other things were shattered down the hall a good 50 feet, making all 4 of the trainers duck at tiny shards of glass rained down.

Out of the now open doorway, Lance walked out, grinning as his Dragonite followed him solemnly.

"Look at that, I even get a welcoming committee for finally breaking that seal," he turned to his Dragonite, then back at the Elite 4. All of them but Bruno were confused, simply staring at Lance while Bruno himself took a step back, then bolted.

"Wha- Bruno?!" Karen turned back, calling out to him, but he refused to stop. When she turned back, Koga already had all of his pokemon out as Will stared at him in shock.

"Go follow him," he stated calmly, "I have a feeling he has the right idea."

"Not so fast," Lance shook his head, "Dragonite, Hyper Beam."

"Fortress, Hyper Beam!"

Will continued to stare at shock at the events that had just unfolded, so Karen grabbed his arm and followed Bruno, not looking back even when the collision of Hyper Beams nearly knocked them to the ground. 

* * *

Blackthorn was quiet today; the light clouds mellowing out the sun's harsh rays only helped the quiet mood of the ancient town. It was one of those days where one would usually stay in bed and maybe read a book.

Arella would do no such thing.

She burst out of the icy cave, her skin welcoming what little sunshine there was in the day to dispel her shivers before she turned around, Matthew and Leu coming out too.

"Arceus. . .Matthew, we're almost there!" Arella smiled, "We're just one badge away from making it to the Elite 4."

Matthew simply nodded, looking up at the gloomy day before looking back at his trainer.

"Um. . .you might want to slow down," he suggested.

Before she could ask why, she accidentally bumped into someone. She apologized quickly, then froze when she realized who it was.

". . .Silver."

The trainer didn't even slow down, but instead walked past both the Feraligatr and the Ampharos.

"Silver!" Arella ran after him back into the frosty cave, only to meet him glaring at her.

"_What_?"

"Why the hell are you giving me the cold shoulder?" she demanded.

"Why do you think?" he raised an eyebrow, "You're famous now: the boy prodigy that ended up being a girl," Silver turned the other way, "If I'm seen with you, people will start digging on me, and then bam: there goes my normal life that I worked so hard for."

"So you're just going to pretend I don't even exist?"

"You would to if your dad's a famous crime syndicate leader on the lam. Now excuse me, I need to train for that stupid trial."

". . .Trial?"

"The gym leader's a bitch and refused to accept that she lost, so she's sending me on some trial tomorrow," he shrugged, then noticed that Arella was staring at him wide-eyed, ". . .What?"

". . .The rumors are true," she bit her lip, then bolted back out of the cave.

"Wait! What rumors?"

"I don't exist, remember?" she glared back at him before leaving the cave, leaving Silver to grumble to himself.


End file.
